Franz Werfel calls the Poetry Crisis Line

Happy 130th birthday to Franz Werfel–whom I might not have heard of except for a Tom Lehrer song.

Read “An Old Woman Passes” by Franz Werfel here (note: poem is 3 pages; link is to page 1).

Also note that the Poetry Crisis Line still endorses use of masks in crowded places; however, our counselors have begun working from home, in the interest of eventually making designs suitable for T-shirts in the Poetry Crisis Line shop.

KIM (COUNSELOR): Poetry Crisis Line, what is your emergency?
WERFEL (CALLER): An old woman passes
KIM: I’m sorry for your loss. Were you close?
WERFEL: Like a rotund tower.
KIM: Uh…can you give me a frame of reference?
WERFEL: Down the street.
KIM: So…like something you see every day?
WERFEL: Stormed
KIM: Uh…do you get daily sieges in your neighborhood?
WERFEL: By a leafy shower.
KIM: Like, if Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane?
WERFEL: Soon she disappears.
KIM: And you should, too. Get outta there!