Cell Phone Calls

At a green light she looks left across two impassable lanes

of traffic and you honk the horn (in your head). You're behind her.

The silhouette of a hand attached, cupping her ear

like a Van Gogh with second thoughts. Maybe a smile full of teeth.

And laughing. Laughing with her ear cut off from the horns,

holding it while she sits in traffic in front of the green light.

A cell phone call, a conversation with a friend who isn't in the car

or stopped at the light. Her eyes aren't looking left at those cars

held expectantly like horses before a gun. Maybe she sees

a diamond ring, a sale at Zales Jewelry where the counter clerk

didn't know how to treat a woman. He said, what a catch I was

and can you believe it he said that to me and I'm like in my thirties!

She laughs in a car the size of your first apartment, the one

just after college, before the first loan payment. Great place,

wood floors and a Murphy bed. Third story walkup. You could see a good

half of the city from that window. You think that’s why you didn't get married

the first time. At last she looks forward, her car jumps ahead

and she veers into the next lane over, peering over her right shoulder

with that mouth definitely full of teeth, hand still cupping her bleeding ear.

She doesn't see you, already turning off, towards the Wal-mart,

slipping back into that silvery school. You hear a horn.

You’d move but the light’s red.

Reviews

[mattavelli]

Hello, Conor! :)
This was a lot of fun. The emotion is very strong and clear. Is it irony? Sharing with strangers can be stressful and the scene you created is one that really gets me. couldnt you drop a meteor on her?