Long Switchboard Poems

Everything here is true
Just as stated
because it's already happened
or - it has yet to occur - 
but it's very soon to occur
and I have such strong feeling
that the future will be as I see it
as...

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Q:  What's the free Medicare Help 800 number?

A:   (352) 841-0632 and they are downsizing the Social Security Office.

Q:  Trump promises not to cut Social Security and Medicare? But does he
 ...

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37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love...

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I REMEMBER (1)

Candles & nightlights
   flickering bright
blackout curtains
    shutting out light

Dripping setting
   from Sunday's roast
spread  thick
on Monday's toast

Paper chains
    cut and glued
beer in glass
     bottles brewed
Christmas puddings
   with threepenny bits
 Meccano kits
     made to fit

Sunday school outings
      upto Coombe hill
my first ever train ride
         so quite a thrill
Summer walks
    to the Bugle Horn
crisps & lemonade
     upon their lawn
A weekly soak
  ..in a round tin bath
towelling off
 by a fire in the hearth

I REMEMBER (2)
afterschool
on a
          tuesday
  my treat
   awaiting on gran's
baking tray

a spicy aroma
  filled
the air
 t'was
  freshly baked-
my
 weekly share

bread pudding
piping hot
   drizzled with honey
moreish&
          yummy
a moist mouth
 watering
             confection
in
a
 sultana delectation


I REMEMBER (3)
my clerking 
ever on the go
the junior
   lowest
                of the low

the office
 with  partners just two
pens   pencils
  nearly-new
daily drudgery
  reality soon shone thru'

the 'old man ' yelling
      'ere lad
  chop chop
get me baccy
   from t'corner shop

 tea-break brews'
                   in a stew
bellows of hurry-hurry
from  the back-office crew

another  task
       to get done
this time
   for the partner's son
    no time to stop &chat
  he'd forgotten the fish
          for his wife's cat

    the switchboard clicked
           the doorbell chimed
&
skills to learn
  juggle & prioritise


whew!
    nearly half five
&  knock-off time

    just one task
still to do
fetch the 'boss's
  evening  news

  was this really
           the career    to choose?...

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Sexism
Growing up we’ve  always thought people were born with a disgusted look on their faces
Because that’s how they have always looked at us
Boxes
 check 1 check other
People don’t know we hid between people like...

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From cold concrete floor to plaster ceiling
in cardboard boxes, damp and peeling;
beneath migraine fluorescence,
humming, blinking incessance.
They languish spectrally bound and gagged,
indexed, filed, stamped and tagged:
a desert vista of yellowing paper.
They say nothing,
travel nowhere.

Confetti never thrown...

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BEING INVISIBLE (THE IRONY OF IT ALL)

There is a Battle ongoing about an 
invisible Being
Each side claims the ear of the One 
before whom they're  kneeling
But how do they know this invisible 
Being at...

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Here looking inwards while sitting in wards.
Never bored watching bulletins and staring out the window at the billboards with eyes that's been pulled before and my thoughts still talk forth.
Still taunted and real torn. My...

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the class
   of summer fifty five
left to ply
   their business lives

the office     partners just two
pens   pencils nearly-new

clerking the lowest
      ...

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the class
   of summer fifty five
left to ply
   their business lives

the office     partners just two
pens   pencils nearly-new

clerking the lowest
      ...

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Avoidance

I sleep to avoid my issues 
I drink to achieve the same 
I stay up all night 
When no-one is around 
So as not to face the next day

Every waking hour 
A silent torture for...

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My place of work they used to call ”Ma Bell”
As switchboard operator, “number please”
Became my tool of their “advanced intel”  
With wires and plugs held to connect parties.

Three days a week from three to...

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The highlight of our week
Knock knock who’s there
A barrage of punchy one-liners
Hilarious skits to crack you up
Ruth Buzzi swinging her purse
Lily Tomlin at the switchboard
One ringy dingy…two ringy dingy
Rowan & Martin’s snide remarks
Giggles from behind...

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Clumsily checked for the switchboard to put on the light
whence I suddenly caught a ghost at mirror sight; 
Promptly like a lizard I hugged the wall really tight
which modestly stood startled toward my right;
Fretting and...

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A shadow of a family
Sits, lumping on our couch
Watching TV with mindless eyes
Occasionally letting a few words out

The lines that bind together
Lie about on the ground like jump ropes
They’re always in the way
Tripping up dreams...

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A series of lights sparkle the 
switchboard , glass , jaw shatters.
	Looking thru the microscope 
to see a microbe settling down , quill in 'hand' 
scribin' Metanarratives , MidWives and tales 
of Fairie untill ,...

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