Terrible Misunderstandings Poem by Margaret Alice

While innocently trying
to survive I was taken
to task offering to pay
costs – travel and
accommodation – of invitees
to Translation Day –

I explained it was not
my decision; my words
were brushed away by
irate administration
aware of the system’s
constraints – I made clear

I was merely a Messenger
carrying out Instructions
received from Above… This
plainly illustrated my point:
- Our theme should be
“Let’s shoot the Messenger -

Translator - Interpreter
alike” because “they are
the cause of every mistake
ever made”; that way I
would have been happily
joining the non-physical

presences in Hereinafter;
instead of lounging about
at work; shocked by the
terrible misunderstandings
that mark the tenor
of human communication…