The Offer
by Michael Helsem




They would trick me into list'ning for a moment,
Those daytime callers, so numerous & avid:
When i am absorbed in some secret other list'ning
They come to me with demands,
_____________& i don't know how to tell them

That what i am waiting for is not their offer
But something much vaster, & silent, & inexorable
From which they have cheated me with their importunities
And which now never might recur in my lifetime.






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