11-09-2022, 12:43 PM
The Unravelling
In the house I grew up in
we had a wall phone
in the kitchen
mounted about shoulder-high
and equipped with an unusually long
curlicue cord that dangled
almost to the linoleum floor.
Mom would get it tangled so bad
that me or my dad
would have to stand up on a chair
and let gravity
slowly spin
the receiver
back to its proper place.
The night he tore it from the wall
I barely looked up from my plate.
In the house I grew up in
we had a wall phone
in the kitchen
mounted about shoulder-high
and equipped with an unusually long
curlicue cord that dangled
almost to the linoleum floor.
Mom would get it tangled so bad
that me or my dad
would have to stand up on a chair
and let gravity
slowly spin
the receiver
back to its proper place.
The night he tore it from the wall
I barely looked up from my plate.