Helpline

Author:

Mario Petrucci

It’s a wire

into your head

– a mouth-

piece pressed

up to the mouth

as key after

key is punched

with your heart

on your lips

so some voice

at that other

end will ask

Can I help

you? then wait

to ask again

until some-

thing gives

to make its

one

moment

clear

that when we risk

speech or dare

listen

a line is

thrown down

that line we

call phone –

a tension strung

across un-

speaking

chasms whose

both ends

hold (hold

with hands of

strangers)

the receiver

From Magma No. 30 (Winter 2004/5)

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