In 1967 it was a different web.....

THE DISTANCES

A slight twist of the dial
changes the music from the samisen
to the Monkees
                                & I am a believer
in the miracle of shortwave radio. Quito,
Ecuador or Radio Peking. The NHK
or the VOA. Pop or propaganda -
you have your choice amongst the
electronic music of the night ether.
Caught in its web, I am a Columbus
searching for new countries, turning
the dial slowly, hoping to hear
station identification through the static
& distortion.

                     This is 1 a.m. Auckland,
a time of dead houses, where only
the streetlamps perforate the darkness.
But in Australia it is
11 p.m. E.S.T., & in Cairo
it is eight hours earlier. To turn
the dial is to turn back the clock.
1 a.m. Auckland. The night is just beginning.