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  • Answering Machine
  • Beverley Bie Brahic (bio)

We talked on the phone yesterday,you in Berkeley, mein the South Bay, always the bridgesbetween us.

Women's conversations.Benjamin's engaged to be married.They went to Vietnamto meet her mother who won't come—too many time zones for an old woman.

The poetry group convened on Sunday.Sorry I couldn't be there,I said, we had a wedding—friendswho've been together twenty years.Christophe in fuchsiasocks and a lavaliere,James more sedate.Now they get health care in three countries.

You and Dave are offto LA on Mondayto get your results. It's funny,you said, how happy I feel—one day at a time

or it might be the effect of the pills. [End Page 55]

All winter I've been listening to yourepeat I can't come to the phone right nowI can't come to the phoneand leaving a message on your machine.

But today when I callto say I'm driving over to BerkeleySunday and I'm thinkingI could drop offone of my famous Tartes Tatinwhich won't be hot but should still taste good—and I'll ring the doorbelland run away like some bad-joke kid

the machine picks upin someone else's voice. [End Page 56] [End Page 57]

Beverley Bie Brahic

Beverley Bie Brahic's collection, White Sheets (CB Editions, 2012), was short-listed for the 2012 Forward Prize. Hunting the Boar (CB Editions, 2016) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and her translation Guillaume Apollinaire: The Little Auto (CB Editions, 2012) won the 2013 Scott Moncrieff Prize. She has also translated Francis Ponge, Yves Bonnefoy, Hélène Cixous, and Jacques Derrida. A Canadian, she lives in Paris and Palo Alto, California. Her website is http://www.beverleybiebrahic.com.

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