A Call With No Answer

A Poem

Photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash

i pick up the payphone in my mind,
put the coins in the slot one by one,
until the line on the other end
begins to ring —

once, twice, three times

— but there’s no answer
as the line drags on to silence,
questioning,
dangling,

there.

(i want so badly, and i don’t know how to quench this thirst,
and all i can do is mock myself in the mirror
as another day goes by and all i see
is someone who doesn’t belong)

but the whole time,
sitting another world away,
is you.

i could wait a thousand years
and you would always leave me
hanging,

questing in the dark,

with little for me to do
but ask what the point is

even as parts of me
ache in silence.

i don’t ask for much
(just words on a page) —