Esther Cohen: "Can I Call You Back?"

Last night as always
I called Bruce
although
he is the best telephone
person I know
he nearly
always says
Can I Call You Back
because he is Doing Something.
Last night he was
cutting up zucchini
and I asked him,
I always ask him
why he can’t talk to me
at the same time as he
cuts up his zucchini but
he can’t. He just can’t.
Later, he calls
back to explain What Happened
the Last Few Days
(nothing and everything)
Mike the painter
has landlord problems
red flying squirrel
still eating Bruce’s grapes
and I listen, thinking
how words
are the musical
notes I love.

"Can I Call You Back?" by Esther Cohen. Reblogged from On Being (12/09/2015), where it was posted as part of Postcards for Hanukkah, a sequence of eight photo-poems by Cohen and photographer Matthew Septimus.

Art credit: Untitled image by unknown photographer.

Curator's note: I know you're busy, but I'd be grateful if you took my two-minute survey before A Year of Being Here concludes on January 1. It will help me (and any potential publishers) decide upon an anthology of mindfulness poetry.