The Canberra Times newspaper published Andrew’s poem “Prank Call” on 6 September 2014. The poem is reproduced below:

Prank Call

 

In my dream I breathed heavily

into the telephone mouthpiece.

 

I was wanting to make a sound,

send a sensation, of menace

 

down the pathways of wire and air

to set the caller’s heart quailing.

 

I breathed heavily in my dream,

lacing each lung-gust with a growl,

 

until I was stopped, mortified,

by a voice wheezy with asthma

 

and love, a voice saying my name.

And as I dreamed I woke I said,

 

‘Oh Mother, Mother, forgive me!’

But she never did, being dead.

                    © Andrew Lansdown