Calling Back the Bible Saleswoman
After a poem by Sandra Simonds

Hello, is this Karen?
I take it
from your silence
you’ve changed
since we talked.
I didn’t call to tear
at you. I’m curious
about your training, intent,
sales goals? I dreamed
of you in the desert
after we talked,
walking at peace
in a three-piece suit.

I didn’t want to have to reach / out to you that way. I sit alone in a room of books and wonder / is anyone else alive? I found your poem about me, but not / about me. Were you encouraged?

Actually, Karen,
this is Bill,
I got your number
from Sandra,
& felt we had something
in common. I’d also like
to offer words,
& I grow worried
that, in other people’s mouths,
I’ve become pejorative,
but I linger,
helpless because
I’m surrounded by people
I don’t know. Does the Bible
really offer encouragement
vis a vis this condition?

I’m just so shocked / you called. It’s a story about an alien / world where everyone knows death / is on the way. They know it in a way we can’t / anymore. And so they write / little t’s all over the desert to missive home in grand wagers.

Karen, is it true
that before tonight
you were entitled
& demanding?

I think I dreamed of you dreaming of me. The mountains scrimming the desert were distantly purple. I was walking toward an oracle, not lost at all. It’s true I’ve on occasion forgotten that other people exist, but that's mostly a sadness floating around me.

What was it, Karen,
that you were
walking to? Encouragement?

A phonebooth just ahead, anachronistic as kindness. Angels were dancing around it, powerfully muscled, waiting to be subservient. The glass was graffitied in lipstick: “Call me 315-491-2132” “Karen’s a virgin” “Karen’s a whore” “Karen wrote this”

The world is vast
& bleak & on a darkling
plain. There is
no help for pain.

Inside the booth was a garden. There was water springing from the receiver. I’ve never told anyone how human I am.


Authors note:
The last italicized stanza owes itself to Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' and the whole poem owes a debt to Sandra Simonds

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Bill Neumire's first poetry collection, Estrus, was a semi-finalist for the 42 Miles Press Award, and second ms, #TheNewCrusades, was a finalist for the Barrow Street Prize before being accepted for publication in 2022 by Unsolicited Press. Poems from this collection have appeared in Harvard Review Online, Beloit Poetry Journal, and West Branch. In addition to writing, Bill serves as an assistant editor for the literary magazine Verdad and as a reviewer for Vallum.