Helpline

after 37 minutes an operator,

determines she's found the perfect person,

is happy to transfer me,

she's happy to remind me too,

that, 

as always,

they have a website.

 

after 20 minutes anticipating the perfection

due to me,

I give up.

But there you go.

we wait, don't we?

for the things we want.

on the things we don't want.

In line, on the phone, wringing our hands,

smoking our cigarettes.

We wait for good bound,

finally, to shift bad unopened 

to the corner of the table

(we're expecting company tonight)

waiting on what didn't exist

until we produced 

the children who we anticipate 

will make us proud.

We wait for them to stop looking through us

for something they can't even see.