Phone rings. I answer.
No response. Someone’s there.
I can hear breath, background noise.
I string together some “hello”‘s,
a “what do you want.”
I don’t hang up. I take
the silence personally.
I need the contact. Anonymous
will have to do. Then I go quiet.
The mystery on the other end
continues. No crime by this.
Maybe the heart that has no way
to speak. Maybe the past, so lived
it can’t live any more.
Eventually, a faint click on
the other end. Dial tone.
I hold the phone, connected
now to nobody but me.
I listen to darkness, pain, despair.
The message is from everything,
anonymous excepted.