Unintentional Insults Poem by gershon hepner

Insults make without intention
are harder to forgive than those
you accidentally may mention
because you fail to diagnose
the sensitivities of her or him
whose feelings you have hurt. So when
to make an insult is your whim,
do it deliberately and then
explain you really didn’t mean
to cause a problem. This excuse
you cannot use if your routine
was unintentional abuse.

Carol Bakhos wrote to me to say that “Perpetual Loss” was perhaps her favorite of my poems. When I reminded her that this compliment involved insulting more than 6,000 other poems she responded:
You know, Gershon, I anticipated your retort! It's true, how could I have written that? Okay, let's put it in context-it's in the top 2,100.
This poem is a response to Carol’s response.

3/27/09