The Man on the Other End of the Phone

Gold cherry
Poem of the week
Pick of the Month

By Ewan

Tue, 07 Feb 2017
  • 8953 reads
13 comments
 

He says hello and my name,

as if trying either out

for the very first time.

My accent becomes his,

maybe there was a school-friend

or drinking pal whose name I bear.

So I reflect his tones and argot

from north of the border

or West of the Pecos

from when he used to read

to me from Zane Grey,

when death came from a six-gun

or a feathered shaft.

 

Not this slow, creeping un-death.

 

I make him laugh, God knows how,

or why I laugh with him.

We talk about Rangers

and I picture Souness,

while he can see Slim Jim

or maybe Willie Waddell.

But he loses the thread, laughs again:

so I talk about Clyde puffers

and what the Air Force

was like long before

I followed him in,

like all good sons attempting

just a tiny connection...

 

through this dark and heavy curtain.

Certificate U
Poem
Gathered Flowers
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I've read many pieces on here about this subject and this is one of the best

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day

Please share/retweet if you like it too

 

Submitted by Ewan on

we all need to try and make sense of it, although there is none to be made. Thanks for the pick and cherries.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Ewan on

absolutely. I was quite pleased about the ambiguity of the title. Regarding the last line... hmm... as someone often prone to the esoteric, it makes a change for someone to comment like this. I do take your point, though. However, for me it's also important how the poem looks on the "page" and it makes the (admittedly not too rigorous) form of the poem "fit".

Thanks so much for reading and commenting.

 

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Ewan on

Souness was a good footballer in his day, though. Nevertheless, his column in the Sunday Times is the most miserable 500 words written on any sport every week. The man takes pragmatism in football to the nth degree. I believe that he once wrote that he wouldn't have picked Jimmy Johnstone as he was a tactical liability, and that wasn't in his Rangers' management days, so it wasn't manager's mind games, just something that sums up his roundhead/puritan outlook on football. Still, I'm an idealist, and it's on a very rare occasion that I find winning ugly acceptable.

Thanks for reading and commenting, Jack.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

The phone is a great metaphor for the difficulty in reconnecting.

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations!

 

Submitted by Ewan on

although it's a poem I'd have preferred never to have written.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Stephen Thom on

Affecting. This is a really strong piece. I like the style, the conversation - lends so much more weight to the central and final lines by themselves

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the Month - Congratulations!

 

Submitted by Ewan on

for the pick. I would have been on the phone when the notification arrived in my e-mail. What a terrible affliction it is.

Ewan

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by BeamsAndVoids on

Nice work Ewan. Combining the detachment from experience of a phone call, with the attempted connection of the two people on the line. It pulls back and forth satisfyingly.

 

Submitted by Mark Say on

I especially like those little references to football and the RAF, trying to make connections through a shared but different experience across generations.