[a response to "Central" by Ted Kooser]

In those days, she did indeed
plug synapses into holes,
color-coded wires,
completing the circuit,
and she could of course
listen in, if she chose
with her bizarre tiara:
headband, earpiece,
little horn to her mouth.

But she was replaced by relays –
click-clicking bits triggered
by the pulse of a dial
on the face of a phone.
She’d still be there sometimes
for information,
giving and taking.

Then push-buttons,
the ten-tone scale –
electronics removed the human
by one more level.
Recordings, voicemail,
simulacrum of contact.
Then the wires, gone for antennae,
and phones the size
of powder compacts.
But even now she can
intercept the microwaves,
decode the signal,
and slam the sender down.

09/22/2001

Posted on 09/22/2001
Copyright © 2025 Bruce W Niedt