Monday, September 14, 2020

eccentrics

It can easily wait until later 
For me to make a phone call
Until you are done with using it
To visit with your far distant friend 

We’re in a kind of throwback situation 
Of bygone household landlines 
When one phone was quite enough 
The way it was for us growing up 

Now it makes us eccentric seniors 
The way you keep yours turned off
To be used only when we are apart 
And otherwise what's mine is ours

Sometimes when I call my friend 
He says he can't talk right then
Because he's on a long distance call
As if there's any difference now 

The way he is mindful of the phone bill
What used to be charged for every minute 
The way the past can become an anachronism
When we continue to practice the old ways

Like how we prefer to wash our dishes by hand 
Using the dishwasher for extra storage 
Seeing it as not necessary in our lives 
Being used to living without one

But one thing that’s better for sure
The single bathroom house upgrade
What cannot always easily wait until later
So much better now we have two