The Land of Midian: A Poetry Collection

The Call

When you told me

what had happened,

so long ago,

I told you how sorry

I was.

My voice was sympathetic.

My words were careful.

Tender.

I told you I had no idea.

That the passing of the

years

since it happened must have been

difficult.

I offered you my condolences,

with politeness and concern.

I was calm

for you.

But inside, I was bleeding.

My eyes were wet.

My heart was pounding.

And when you hung up,

I sat in the dark

and cried.

All those years I had grown

my hope

were gone..

And I didn't have it in me

to ask you

where he was buried.

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NOTES ABOUT THIS: The Call is about a phone call I got from a friend I hadn't seen in almost a decade. This was the friend who introduced me to the young man with whom I shared a pure and distanced affection. This phone call was upbeat and friendly. We were catching up, after all. But the call ended on a somber note... I learned that the boy grown into a good man that I had kept in my heart for all those years had been killed. He'd been dead and buried for quite some time, and I had never known it. I tried to be polite and offer my condolences to my friend. When the call ended...I was heartbroken.