This post is about regret. The deepest kind, the kind that corrodes from within. Not stemming from choices (which become lessons learned) or circumstantial, out of our control (which call for a response). I'm thinking of regrets stemming from our own failings. Maybe something unexpressed said, not unsaid harmed, not made good hidden, unrevealed. Maybe someone deflected, gaslit, neglected or simply patronized. Regrets that cause harm. We think we're controlling something or some situation. The other parties don’t know or suspect. But they do and we know they are hurting until, situationally, the point of unraveling can't be avoided. It always comes out, we've betrayed ourselves and all that we are left with is regret. --- Haiku poem: regret Regret is a betrayal betrayal you commit on yourself memory staining debt coupled to free verse discussion of life’s journey to regret, paired with an image of graffiti on an electrical substation with the words “Sorry” and “Mom” spelled in the form of a cross balanced on the “o”’s; snapped in July 2024 in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Graffiti is by a homeless person whose parents were subsistence laborers, unable to care properly for their child during working hours, and so he was lead astray. This image ©ilinkcs (2025/11)
Our deepest regrets
corrode from within
Maybe
something unexpressed
said, not unsaid
harmed, not made good
hidden, unrevealed
Maybe someone
deflected, gaslit, neglected
or simply
patronized
ALT=deets
#poetry #poem #haiku #regret #betrayal
#deflected #gaslit #neglected #harmed #hidden
