Regret isn't rare
it's common as breath
as ordinary as the way
we all learn too late
what we should've said sooner
Everyone carries something
they wish they could undo
a sentence that landed wrong
a door slammed too hard
a person they let slip
through hands that didn't know
how to hold on gently
It hides in small places
in the pause before sleep
in the rearview mirror
when a song comes on
that knows your past better than you do
We pretend we're exceptions
like everyone else messed up
but we're the only ones
still bleeding from it
But regret is a language
we all speak
quietly
fluently
without ever admitting it out loud
The man at the bar
staring too long into his drink
the woman laughing
just a little too hard
the stranger on the bus
watching the world pass
like they missed their stop years ago
Not the kind that haunt houses
but the kind that haunt choices
the fork in the road
they still stand at
in their mind
We are all collections
of almosts and if-onlys
of better versions of ourself
that existed for a moment
before we ruined them
or let them go
And maybe that's the truth
not that regret defines us
but that it proves we cared
enough to wish
we had done better
Because indifference
leaves no scars
So we carry it
not proudly
not gracefully
but honestly
A quiet weight
in the chest
a reminder
that we were here
that we tried
that we failed
in ways that mattered
And somehow
despite all of it
we keep going
stitched together
by the very mistakes
we wish we could erase