Mistaken... Poem by James Osumo

Her head lay on my shoulder
My arms around her
Softly stroking her soft hair.
“I love you sweet heart”, she said,
“I too love you dear”, I responded
As I gently kissed her forehead.

Suddenly, our tranquil engagement was jolted
By a shrill so sharp,
Technology on mission to tear us apart.
“Ignore it”, said one half of me
“Check it”, said the other
Parts of me engaged in a furious wits’ war.
The second half had its day,
I picked the puerile gadget
Wishing I could give it a handful slap
Some manners to teach it.

It might be an emergency,
I comforted my raging self.
A father, mother, bother, sister, friend distressed.
A life saved or a life lost
Both depended on the message
In my hands.
“Good night, sweet heart”,
The message stared at me
I stared back in wonderment.
Who could it be?

I knew no other heart so sweet,
As that lying by me.
So I turned, and said,
“Darling, what a tease! ”
“What? ”, she asked,
“The text you sent me”, I said.
“Not me”, said she,
Tearing the gadget off my hand.

A sudden cloud of silence cut through the room
Shaking everything in its way
Pah! The silence was broken
As the poor phone smashed onto the wall across
Forever annihilated
With the message so sweet
Yet so painful.

The sweet face that lay on my shoulder
Now sobbingly sought comfort in the pillow beside
I lay there, addled
For I knew the other heart
Only in words technology relayed.

Like a ray of light,
The answer flushed across my mind
It was a wrong number.
Oh technology!
So convenient,
So facile our lives made
Yet with finger on
Digit not intended
So much pain engendered

My only sweet heart lost
Reason lay in a phone lost
The message so painful yet so sweet
But so much pain caused
My sweet heart gone
My mind wishing I had sent the three words,
“sorry wrong number”
That would have made all the difference
Saving a sweet heart abreast
For the other was only in words
But now,
Both, for ever lost.