Don’t Hang Up
This call may be monitored
This call may be dropped
from a landline sinking
on an iceberg floating
as the planet unravels
like a spool of thread
and you can’t move the needle
or pull the frayed edge through
This call may be disconnected
from an unplugged grid
where nothing is normal
and all the voicemails are full
Where the cars are all parked
and gas tanks read empty
Where robos and trolls
go back under the bridge
This is a recording
Your wrong number can be traced
when science fiction is prophecy
and the rule of law is entropy
When news is rumor
and black boxes are burned
When quality assurance
can’t be assured
and nature
has the biggest bomb
_______Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United
March 11th, 2022 1:10 am
when science fiction is prophecy
and the rule of law is entropy… love this!
March 11th, 2022 1:25 am
Brilliant poem! And I wish you had had no occasion to write it!
March 11th, 2022 9:44 am
If they stopped calling me to inquire as to whether or not I approved of the $1,200 charge which is about to be added to my credit card I probably wouldn’t get any calls at all, so I guess I should count my blessings, eh?
Fine work, CR! Thanks.
March 11th, 2022 10:03 am
I’ve been getting back into poetry again. This is wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
March 11th, 2022 11:32 am
Instability. You’ve done a great job of expressing what the world feels like at this moment in time!
March 11th, 2022 3:11 pm
So well said. We are are SO longing for peace … and peace of mind!
March 11th, 2022 3:18 pm
This one feels like the lovechild of 1984 and current days. The last stanza is particularly shiver-provoking.
March 11th, 2022 3:29 pm
Absolutely one of my favorite Colleen poems! Brilliant.
March 11th, 2022 5:54 pm
I like the hard edge on this word play, though I wish it was dystopian fiction and not current events.
March 13th, 2022 11:05 am
So many worries in this world. They all yammer at us with equal threat. I worry we are all going to have a collective stroke.
March 14th, 2022 8:13 pm
Excellent poem, Colleen! I loved:
“as the planet unravels
like a spool of thread
and you can’t move the needle
or pull the frayed edge through”