That Unkind of Call

When people still had landline telephones
Sometimes I wanted to throw mine out the window
The last time we talked, he told me he’d beaten it
The phone rang, it was his wife
He hadn’t
I’d been trimming my mango tree
I went back to work and cut at it savagely
Then stopping, I realized I couldn’t recall her name
And wondered why she hadn’t said who she was
Had just jumped into the sad news
An old-fashioned one like Esther or Beatrice
That mango tree and I do battle constantly
Or it wins because Nature always does
I am sorry for his wife having lost him
Eat mangoes and think about friends gone and names forgotten
I’m at that age where more calls like that come
Sometimes I want to throw my cell phone out the window

Talk story

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