Crossed Wires

Why is it that what you thought was plain,

and it happens time and time again;

when you believe there is no mistaking what you meant to say,

something is taken by somebody completely the wrong way?

It’s like they're speaking a foreign language that you wished you knew,

or reading something, and not having a clue

how someone else could interpret it so differently

You were only kidding, but their eyes don’t see

it quite that way at all

No, they’re offended; call

it miscommunication on a grand scale,

at getting your point across, you utterly failed

This long-distant dance by computer is a bad way to talk

At criticism, we all get mad and balk

at the notion that we could be wrong,

that something we worked so hard and long

on, poured out our thoughts and feelings on paper,

could possibly be wrong; it causes us to waver

in the trust of our thoughts and it makes us defensive,

but that is different than the personally-offensive

attack of someone we don’t even know

That kind of vicious attack hurts so

So it upsets me when something I’ve said

is taken the wrong way; they somehow get it in their head

that my comment was meant to inflict pain

Crossed wires is my worst nightmare; from that, I try to refrain