phone call

15.

i answered my phone

i was walking through 

an urban park, a field of snow 

surrounded by hoar-frosted trees

the phone vibrated in my pocket

the music stopped

the music didn’t start again for months

i didn’t see the oncoming shock wave

through the slowness of the falling snow

i moved the slider and heard

the foreign voice of a friend

whose name i didn’t remember

who said i have unfortunate news

to tell….

all i heard was pressure

pushing through my eardrums

whatever happened after

didn’t include me

then i was told:

winter was gone

spring was gone

i was surrounded by nurses and doctors

hospital beds and the straps;

that held me down,

so i wouldn’t break my own bones

months went past 

that phone call never ended

it severed my sense of time and place:

already fragile,

i can’t remember what the bad news was tho…