Fifteen Times
In the days before answering machines and voice mail and caller id,
I let your phone ring fifteen times.
Fifteen times I imagined the rings hitting the wall, bouncing off the floor, echoing through your apartment.
Fifteen times I thought of what I would say when you picked up and shouted, “What?” Fifteen times I thought of my love and my loneliness and what I had lost.
Later I learned that you were at her place
and not there to hear the fifteen rings,
the fifteen times I said your name.
4 thoughts on "Fifteen Times"
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SO good… I can see and feel the scene vividly
‘the fifteen times I said your name’… goosebumps
Good job! The ending really works.
Haunting! This short poem weaves a larger story. Well done.
Nice job Nancy . . . hypnotic 15 times . . . like hanging on to a metronome’s beat to keep time with the mystery!