Michael Henry
Samaritans Poetry Competition
Her voice tells me I sound uncertain.
Always bad news on the telephone.
Poor exam results. Deaths. Rejections.
She doesn’t know about the competition.
Am I sure it isn’t something else?
I can see my voice in the mirror.
A sideline in suicide perhaps?
I try to get off the telephone.
Imagine half the population
of Mansfield wanting to top themselves
and not getting through. And me not even local.
Do Samaritans have league tables?
I don’t want her dialling 1471.
I don’t want her noting down my number.
I say I’m interested in the Samaritans.
After all she’s only doing her job.
A cosy girl. Thirty-five perhaps.
Pursing her lipstick on the mouthpiece.
I tell her my mother committed suicide.
And today is Mothering Sunday.
In the suicide Himalayas, not quite Christmas.
Would I like to read my poem?
Would I like to tell her what it’s about?
I must be missing her. Of course.
She died at ten o’clock. Late March.
Would she care to be my surrogate mother?
Her voice tells me. She sounds uncertain.
Always bad news on the telephone.
Page(s) 50
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