No Machine At All

No Machine At All
Bob Komives

::

No machine can intimidate him,

a man,
astute,
mechanically inclined
—no machine at all—
unless the
foreign phone
that wants
foreign coins
that sound
foreign chimes
described by
foreign words
on neat-small signs
with neat-small designs
that he understands
somewhat better
than the kind words
that come from the earpiece to tell him
he has finally connected
to the
wrong kind person
at the
wrong kind of time
in the wrong kind of place
using the wrong kind of coin
in a phone of the wrong color kind.
Nothing can intimidate him,
a man, astute,
mechanically inclined
—nothing at all—
unless the foreign phone
and the girl
who reaches out
then kindly reaches up
to engineer his call.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1995 :: No Machine At All :: ,9522