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The Phone Call
The Phone Call
Copyright © May 3,2020 by Douglas W. Jerving.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the author, except
as provided by USA copyright law.
Jon Dill had another day until the walk.
He still did not know why or how this thing
They’d said was reasonably his account
Became the reason why. He, just a child,
Now at thirty plus four and called a man
Yet still trying to learn his ABCs.
The phone along the block called out his name;
Or rather his name called out by a guard:
Good Chester always cared for Jon and now
He bidded Jon to hear the caller’s pay.
This was, after all, all that he would hear
Of life from his dear sister and her friend.
“Happy Birthday, Jon!” so far away, she
Spoke as if it was just yesterday
Although it had been three months and a year.
He did not know the difference anyway.
“Thank you Janey and I love little Tom.
Say Hi to him. We used to play the sun
As if we were both shadows or sun rays.
I never see the sun much nowadays.
I wish that Tommy could see me again.”
And just at that point he could hear the friend
Behind her voice demanding she hang up.
“Enough of this!” he seemed to say. “You can’t
Continue to allow this clown…” Then “wroing”
The phone was dead and Jon was all alone
In that same long hall like the hell of God.
The day was short as life as death is long.
He hated how the friend had cut them off.
He hated how the friend hurt her so deep.
He did not understand how Tommy’s sleep
Could last so long that he’d not wake to speak
The truth that would deliver him from death.
He slipped into a coma as the drug
Pulsated through his body quietly.
He remembered once again his A and B
While Tommy beckoned him to play again
In sun just hours after the friend was gone.
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Doug Jerving is the publisher of the NewEdisonGazette.com. You may contact him at
djerving@newedisongazette.com.
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