Maureen Li
The only thing that’s new is the mobile
All she ever says is
sorry it has not been possible
to connect you please
try again later
she never says oh not you again
at ten to four she gives me
a ringing tone
hello he says I’m on the train
I’m half way to Worcester
he says it like he’s expecting a pat on the back
and do I say whatever happened
to lunch with me
I do not
Worcester I go how nice but
there must be a tunnel
it’s breaking up
all the bits of his voice
windscreen glass crazed by a stone
and then sorry she says please
push your hand through the glass all
the cut surfaces are quite smooth only
the wind to face edge on to the hard shoulder stop
switch off sorry it has not
been possible to connect you please
sorry it has not been possible
to connect you please
try again later
she never says oh not you again
at ten to four she gives me
a ringing tone
hello he says I’m on the train
I’m half way to Worcester
he says it like he’s expecting a pat on the back
and do I say whatever happened
to lunch with me
I do not
Worcester I go how nice but
there must be a tunnel
it’s breaking up
all the bits of his voice
windscreen glass crazed by a stone
and then sorry she says please
push your hand through the glass all
the cut surfaces are quite smooth only
the wind to face edge on to the hard shoulder stop
switch off sorry it has not
been possible to connect you please
Maureen Li works with torture survivors. Her poems have appeared most recently in Staple magazine.
Page(s) 19
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The