Violent Tendencies & Poem

Chan­nel your vio­lent tendencies!

And some­thing com­plete­ly different

Tele­phone Repairman
by Joseph Millar
All morn­ing in the Feb­ru­ary light
he has been mend­ing cable,
splic­ing the pairs of wires together
accord­ing to their colors,
white-blue to white-blue
vio­let-slate to violet-slate,
in the ware­house attic by the river.

When he is finished
the mes­sages will flow along the line:
thank you for the gift,
please come to the baptism,
the bill is now past due :
voic­es that flick­er and gleam back and forth
across the trac­er-col­ored wires.

We live so much of our lives
with­out telling anyone,
going out before dawn,
work­ing all day by ourselves,
shak­ing our heads in silence
at the news on the radio.
He thinks of the many signals
fly­ing in the air around him
the syl­la­bles fluttering,
say­ing please love me,
from con­ti­nent to continent
over the curve of the earth.