Switchboard Shift
Switchboard Shift by Kathleen Fagley, published by Concrete Wolf in 2024, is a 52-page exploration of the urgent demands faced in health crises. The work delves into the experiences of an operator who navigates the complexities of communication amidst chaos, portraying the challenges of maintaining efficiency and emotional distance while connecting with those in distress. The language reflects a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and human experience, emphasizing the weight of responsibility that comes with the role.
Readers will find a nuanced tapestry of hospital codes and the interplay between the operator and anxious callers. Fagley captures the tension of conveying seriousness without inciting panic, as she grapples with the emotional toll of her position. The text invites reflection on the nature of communication in medical settings, highlighting themes of urgency and the human condition. This edition presents a thought-provoking look at the realities of hospital administration and care through a poetic lens.
Official synopsis Publisher
Kathleen Fagley’s Switchboard Shift grapples with urgent demands of time in health crises. Headsets and lines render her “a reader of voices” speaking “another language/driven by machines.” The job requires efficiency, calm, and separation from primary human emotions. The speaker says, “the mother is in shock/and I am losing my voice.” The operator questions her visual and aural abilities, wants nothing more than to fly above rivers, upturned trees. But the wolverine stalks hospital hallways.
-Susan Roney-O’Brien, author of Bone Circle and Thira
Equivocal, the voices in Switchboard Shift: Kathleen Fagley has braided a tenuous tapestry of hospital codes, calls, and responses between “an operator tethered to her station” and anxious speakers on the line. Hoping to “convey seriousness without panic,” she is “pressed into [her]seat by the weight of emergencies.” When “a small voice answers back…distant as the earth from the moon,” she has learned that “it is not a choice that [she] listen.” So should you.
-Christina Lovin, author of Echo: Poems and A Stirring in the Dark
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