Hello is always coming in or going out.

He is a short noise we make in air.

Hello never knows what he's talking about,

A weather-maker, the forecast always unclear.

Hello looks ahead. Hello is a trier.

Hello remembers. He's an oldtime liar,

A lover, an arriver, a family man,

Listening for an answer since words began.

You call it down your stairwell, householder and hoper. What if it's

Santa Claus on his day off. HELLO?

It wouldn't be different the second thousand time. Would it? But we

kept at it. Didn't we? Going into the third thousand now, the

mornings of the evenings of the days off Hello.

Hello? Western Union. Mother died last night. Hello? You have been

accepted. Hello? Is Alice there? Is Mickey there, is this Elmer's

Drugstore (Wrong number.) The baby came at two-thirty, a boy.

We are making a special low-rate subscription offer this week only.

I'm taking a later train. HELLO?

Hello, hello, hello, all you wonderful people! And there's old Dick

and there's Elsie. How was Rome? Judy, hello'. I hear you went

to Mexico. How's s Mexico, and how's Jack? Say hello to Jack for

me, and - well, hello! Hello. Hello. Hello.

You cry it into a dark empty house. Anyone home? Jack the Ripper.

animals, ancestors. HELLO?

Let me take your coat, the better to knife you in the back. Nice to

see you again, you stinker. How about a cup of coffee

before you drop dead? And don't try to borrow any money from me.

Nice weather, certainly a relief, yes. Here's a couple of seats.

Hey, there's Al! Let's get old Al over here. Hello, why, hello!

You went to school with me, you played on my brother's ball-team, you

used to eat peanut-butter sandwiches in my mother's kitchen, we

went into the Army at the same time, we both have three children now, and,

you live on the next street, Charlie, Ray,

and I have forgotten your name, Joe, Al, Kennie . . . Hello.

This one is four, and you forty, the spring birds are coming in our

Back-yard trees, we are all lively and sunlit, his young fa-

ther is stiffened in a hospital, gets home week-ends. Hello.

Here comes your son, almost seventeen, too big to hug, or you're

Seventeen and hugging. Father to son. Son to father. Hello.

You walk the black farm road with a flashlight. Hello. She can't have

gone far. Hello. At night in summer smell the green, the weeds and

trees cooling. Where are you? Hello. Where are you? Hello, . . hello . . .

Said with surprise. Said with pleasure. Said with fear.

Spontaneous or faked. Unwilling or automatic. Defensive,

hearty, trademarked, a kiss from ten feet away, a handshake

From fifteen. A language. Hello seven thousand times a year