diff --git a/src/wormhole/scripts/cmd_send.py b/src/wormhole/scripts/cmd_send.py
index 1b5aa0e..a35aa9e 100644
--- a/src/wormhole/scripts/cmd_send.py
+++ b/src/wormhole/scripts/cmd_send.py
@@ -11,7 +11,20 @@ def send(args):
     from ..blocking.transit import TransitSender
     from .progress import start_progress, update_progress, finish_progress
 
-    if os.path.isfile(args.what):
+    text = args.text
+    if not text and not args.what:
+        text = six.moves.input("Text to send: ")
+
+    if text is not None:
+        sending_message = True
+        print("Sending text message (%d bytes)" % len(text))
+        phase1 = {
+            "message": text,
+            }
+    else:
+        if not os.path.isfile(args.what):
+            print("Cannot send: no file named '%s'" % args.what)
+            return 1
         # we're sending a file
         sending_message = False
         filesize = os.stat(args.what).st_size
@@ -28,12 +41,6 @@ def send(args):
                 "relay_connection_hints": transit_sender.get_relay_hints(),
                 },
             }
-    else:
-        sending_message = True
-        print("Sending text message (%d bytes)" % len(args.what))
-        phase1 = {
-            "message": args.what,
-            }
 
     w = Wormhole(APPID, args.relay_url)
     if args.zeromode:
diff --git a/src/wormhole/scripts/runner.py b/src/wormhole/scripts/runner.py
index 77b8df0..6619248 100644
--- a/src/wormhole/scripts/runner.py
+++ b/src/wormhole/scripts/runner.py
@@ -65,12 +65,14 @@ sp_restart.set_defaults(func=cmd_server.restart_server)
 # CLI: send
 p = subparsers.add_parser("send",
                           description="Send text message or file",
-                          usage="wormhole send TEXT|FILENAME")
+                          usage="wormhole send [FILENAME]")
+p.add_argument("--text", metavar="MESSAGE",
+               help="text message to send, instead of a file")
 p.add_argument("--code", metavar="CODE", help="human-generated code phrase")
 p.add_argument("-0", dest="zeromode", action="store_true",
                help="enable no-code anything-goes mode")
-p.add_argument("what", metavar="TEXT|FILENAME",
-               help="the message to send (a string), or a filename")
+p.add_argument("what", nargs="?", default=None, metavar="[FILENAME]",
+               help="the file to send")
 p.set_defaults(func=cmd_send.send)
 
 # CLI: receive
@@ -82,7 +84,7 @@ p.add_argument("-0", dest="zeromode", action="store_true",
 p.add_argument("-t", "--only-text", dest="only_text", action="store_true",
                help="refuse file transfers, only accept text transfers")
 p.add_argument("--accept-file", dest="accept_file", action="store_true",
-               help="accept file transfer with prompting")
+               help="accept file transfer with asking for confirmation")
 p.add_argument("-o", "--output-file", default=None, metavar="FILENAME",
                help=dedent("""\
                The file to create, overriding the filename suggested by the