CarrollBlog 4.27

LONG DISTANCE

by Dana Gioia

Two weeks of silence broken by this call,

She holds the neutral phone against her cheek,

Hearing his whisper cross a continent.

Once words were never distant from his lips.

Now sound alone would stroke her like a kiss.

She could tell him everything in a touch

And read his certain answers in embrace.

But now his voice seems oddly out of place,

Almost anonymous, as if she overheard

A stranger talking on another line.

The conversation...