I hurt you?
I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to.
I won’t do that again.
Can I make it better?
I hurt you?
I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to.
It wasn’t my intent,
so it doesn’t hurt you.
Shall I do it again?
I hurt you?
I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to.
It wasn’t my intent,
but how can it hurt you?
This couldn’t hurt anyone.
I’ll do it again.
I hurt you?
Oh.
I can live with your pain.
I’ll do it again.
Photo by Eric Anderson.
ordainedgeek 
How very, very true and very, very frightening.
Thank you, Maren.
This sounds like a classic case of abuse. 😦 Unfortunately I am all too familiar with this one, and as Maren mentioned, it’s very scary.
That’s true, it does. Abuse within a family wasn’t at the forefront of my mind as I wrote the poem, though it was there. I was trying to express four categories of response to expressions of hurt – unhelpful and yes, abusive responses. The greater part of my thinking was about the experience of marginalized peoples.
This was actually the second of three attempts to reflect on this. The first was in an essay for my church newsletter (http://holycrosshilo.com/2019/08/07/pastors-corner-when-it-hurts/), and the third is a song that I thought I’d recorded and apparently haven’t.
Thank you for your courageous reply!