Hold the Phone – Jcagney
There used to be one in every house with its own end table or altar.
ours was a wire stand crammed with phone books– the first internet.
if you remembered to clean it
you’d wipe it down like a baby – its umbilical cord would braid itself over all the stories & lies transmitted—
You’d have to stand on a chair
to let the long cord unkink
; the handset
a satellite spinning weightless above the rug.
you could slow dial if you didn’t want to talk but had to. you’d listen to its metallic purr
watch the plastic wheel rotate
and as it rang wondered what the house
or room
on the other end looked like.
ours would scream in the empty living room and you’d run to it. tell it from the kitchen
you were coming, even as your footfalls
shook the plates on the wall.
Sometimes,
momma could tell who was on the line just by hearing it ring. She’d say: Jesus! before picking it up– not because it was Him calling– but rather she knew she was going to need Him before she hung up.
Grandpa would call every day & hold the phone. You’d stand there and listen to him breathe for a while. You had to wait– even if you knew what he wanted
And what he wanted was
nothing. Just nothing.
Where yo momma, he’d finally say His mouth full of toothless m’s. Momma would lean back on the couch, his voice in her ear and they’d exchange breaths for the longest time.
She’d sit like that for a while
smoking,
her fingers turning solitaire tarot
on the coffee table. Sometimes she’d be leaned back
on the couch and I’d put my ear to her stomach listening to what was going on in there
until she had to get up and do this or finish that.
Call waiting used to be called Patience.
You let the phone ring & if no one picked up you called right back, let it ring some more
Call forwarding was when someone would call and it wasn’t for you.
You’d have to go to the yard where she squatted over tomato plants or you’d hang out the window above the driveway or shout through the bathroom door: Phone!
Long distance only happened Sunday nights– You shouted over the width of states.
The callers voice so far away they sounded other worldly.
You had to talk quick & with purpose– remember your report card and ask about the dog– because time was money tumbling from someone’s palm.
In school, I could talk for hours about nothing. Or prank call. I talked with a girl once
While slowly pouring water
Out of a gallon pitcher into the toilet.
It took the longest time before she asked:
What are you doing?!?
Oh, just standing here, I’d say.
Obscene calls don’t happen any more. I miss them.
One day
my father caught one and said: Hold on for a minute
Then passed the phone
to Uncle Jerry who just drove in from
Bakersfield.
He took the phone, listened for a good while, frowned, then started cussing till black flies tumbled from his mouth.
That was when hanging up on someone really meant something.
–jcagney
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The photo appearing with this poem was taken two days ago. It has a ring tone.
Reading it aloud, I like the poems tone, even as it annoys me for being so informal and folksy. A workshop could make this more muscular. To me, the line breaks are aligned to the poems speed. It demands to be read with your hands in your pockets, thinking.