Mario Petrucci
Helpline
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
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
Mario Petrucci was a SANELINE (Helpline) volunteer for two years. He is an award-winning author of six collections of poetry, the most recent of which are reviewed in this issue on page 70. He has recently embarked on a residency at BBC Radio 3, the first for a poet.
Page(s) 29
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