Miscalculation
I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul, a tactical error I’ve made— for Peter has simply missed nothing at all, and Paul does not really want to be paid.
Kay Sage
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul, a tactical error I’ve made— for Peter has simply missed nothing at all, and Paul does not really want to be paid.
The speaker leans on the old saying about "robbing Peter to pay Paul," which means taking from one person to settle a debt to another. She has done exactly that, and she calls it a "tactical error." The joke is that the plan fails on both ends at once. Peter never noticed anything was gone, so the theft wasn't needed. Paul didn't want the money, so the payment wasn't needed either. All the effort of juggling has produced nothing.
The tone is dry and wry. The speaker sounds amused, maybe a little embarrassed, at having worked so hard on a problem that wasn't there. The short, broken lines make the poem feel like a slow shrug: each fragment ("missed," "nothing at all," "really," "want") hesitates before the final admission. Read lightly, it's a joke about bad bookkeeping. Read more closely, it hints at a larger feeling of effort wasted and of mismatched expectations between people, where no one needed what the speaker was trying so hard to give.