My mind manufactures grudges
With startling new designs 
All sharp corners and multipurpose 
But you won’t see the signs

***

Appreciative of the slipstream
And the wide berth given to the blind
You catch yourself - a sudden stop
Unaware I strode behind

And in fractions of a second 
The workshop shears a cog
And mentally I damn your eyes,
Damn your cane and damn your gurning labradog

Your pavement presence offends me
And colliding with some clout
You might expect an expletive
But here’s all that comes out. 

“Sorry, so sorry”

Cue jumping - jump off a cliff
And into a waiting shark
My resentment is internalised 
And outside not a spark - 

Just “oh, sorry”

What a waste, when you barge past
Or chew with mouth wide open
Or get pissy I don’t hear your wit
You mumble! You’re not softly spoken! 
 
But I say “sorry?”

And you don’t mind your ‘p’s and ‘q’s 
‘cause clearly your opinion counts
You don’t hunt out conversation
It’s all just pounce, pounce, pounce

But me? “Sorry but.. Sorry I… S-” 

And the manufactory turns over
My mind busy behind shuttered eyes
As I burn up all the grudges
The ‘sorry’ is the exhalation of hatred vaporised