No One On The Line

Billy Collins, a long time favorite poet of mine, is "famous for conversational, witty poems that welcome readers with humor but often slip into quirky, tender or profound observation on the everyday." This piece is a gem and particularly thought-provoking and apropos to some of the comments I occasionally hear regarding people's willingness staying in touch with their "friends."

Just as in the horror movies

when someone discovers that the phone calls

are coming from inside the house

so too, I realized   

that our tender overlapping

has been taking place only inside me.

All that sweetness, the love and desire—

it’s just been me dialing myself

then following the ringing to another room

to find no one on the line,

well, sometimes a little breathing

but more often than not, nothing.

To think that all this time—

which would include the boat rides,

the airport embraces, and all the drinks—

it’s been only me and the two telephones,

the one on the wall in the kitchen

and the extension in the darkened guest room upstairs.

"The Breather" by Billy Collins

"If the phone doesn't ring, it's me." Jimmy Buffet

 Photography and design by Martha Lee Phelps