The House Where Sorry Lived: Poems About Regret and the Cost of Saying Sorry

Eight months after their mother’s death, two adult sisters return to a narrow brick terrace to prepare it for sale. The front step is loose, the back door sticks after rain and a school certificate lies hidden behind the cutlery drawer.

When Ruby was twelve, she won a drawing prize. Their mother missed the presentation while covering an unexpected shift in a care-home kitchen. Ruby came home disappointed. Her older sister, frightened of further conflict and eager for supper to return to normal, told Ruby to apologise for upsetting their exhausted mother. Ruby did. Nobody discussed the incident again.

Years later, the two sisters remember that evening differently. As they compare repair estimates and decide what to keep from the house, practical decisions expose unresolved questions. How much can a sincere apology repair? What happens when a person is expected to comfort someone whose actions hurt them? And how can someone accept responsibility without demanding forgiveness in return?

In 43 interconnected poems, Mira Vale gives close attention to work, affection and the private language of a family. With precise dialogue and ordinary domestic detail, The House Where Sorry Lived explores adult sisterhood, complicated grief and the difficult honesty that remains after familiar rooms have been emptied.

For readers seeking contemporary literary poetry about inherited habits, family memory and the cost of keeping the peace.