Interference

Two rings and I snatch up the receiver,
static crackles and curses on the line
scouring my ear drums .
I just make out a Lilliputian voice ,
and shriek ‘How did you get on?’
Your response is a tiny urgent whine.
After a few more attempts at making contact
I end the call like an unsuccessful séance.

And I wonder if this is why I cannot hear
my late mother trying to make the first move
or grandmother passing judgement on new friends,
their efforts  jammed by the scraunch and hiss of white noise.
 

Fiona Sinclair reviews for numerous poetry magazines including IS&T and Happenstance. She is  the editor of the online poetry magazine Message in a Bottle. Hew second pamphlet A Game of Hide and Seek is out now from Indigo Dreams.