| Customer Service It feels so good to get a live person. Let’s have a conversation about the weather in Boston or Bangalore. I want to talk about anything except the reason for my call. I’m sick of me and my problems. Let’s talk about you. Tell me what you see when you look out your window. Tell me what your hands are doing right now. Do you know that song by Jim Croce about lost love and a telephone operator? Doesn’t this feel a little like that song? Keep talking, please. I love your accent. Yes, I believe in God, but I don’t think God created the world, or even knows we’re here. I think the world is a sort of dream we’re having, fast asleep in Heaven. Yes, I’ll hold… Hi again. I've been thinking, spiritual texts are the most boring books in the world — not one of them mentions a bicycle, or a Ferris wheel, or ice cream or baseball or sea lions. They just lump them altogether into the world. But Heaven is here. Heaven is now. Have you read any books by Jhumpa Lahiri? She’s wonderful. If this call is being monitored for training purposes, I’d like to say to all the trainees: just be yourself. And remember to be human. And remember to be amazed at how close to each other we sound when you consider we’re a world away. Paul Hostovsky |
If you have any comments on this poem, Paul Hostovsky would be
pleased to hear them.
