Someone calls my phone 

Someone calls my phone

And tries to talk to me.

He tells me things about his day

And asks me how I am.

But maybe he knew the previous owner

Of this phone?

I don’t know what to say to him.

I’ve tried to tell him that I am not the “she”

Who he has previously spoken to.

I’ve tried to say 

His small talk seems so far away

And from a distant time,

But he continues to tell me of the weather,

And then he asks me how I am.

I don’t know what to say to him.

I’ve hung up twice.

He calls me back and tells me, “that’s not nice.”

I’ve tried to be this she he thinks I am,

But I don’t ever seem

To answer him properly

And he gets mad.

One day he texts,

And the next thing I know,

If I don’t say something back fast enough,

He’s answered himself in a line below it,

And so, sometimes I feel

He would be better off,

To just have these talks with himself,

So my end of the conversation 

Would come across more pleasing to him.

I seem to disappoint him so.

I try to say, “I’m not the girl

You used to know,” but he won’t hear it.

And if her spirit could speak to him,

I have no idea what she might say,

For it seems she is the one

Who went away, and got a different number.

And did she forget to tell him what the new one was?

Or did she remember all too well

The crazy hell it was to try to have

Even a polite shallow conversation?
He asks me how I am.
I try to tell him.

I’m going to try once more,

To get through to him

Who I really am, and how,

And if that doesn’t work this time,

I may have to get a new number, too.

-jenn