Hang ups,
I’ve got plenty of those
Like a phone with
too many busy signals,
I couldn’t get through to you.
I think the number you gave me was out of service.
You said, “Dial me up”
but the damn phone was a push button.
I called long distance,
the operator said
“Put another quarter in.”
Sadly I only had one thin dime. I wonder if I should have called collect?
All along you had my number. You could have,
given me a ring. After-all I was the marrying kind.
It seems my dial tone was slightly out of tune??
I scratched your number out of my little black book. It was time to find another connection.
I could say I don’t remember you, but that would be a lie.
You are the crush that never made it to speed dial.
A push-button blood alarm
scans the receptivity of softly ticking ears.
It is the ever-wakening
never snoozing
internet jungle calling.
Fasting birds as large as velociraptors
insist on being called parrots,
a raucous conversation hardly heard
as it filters through
3-D printed flugelhorns.
A cell awakes vibrates within an ear socket
demanding its early morning diaper change.
Little silver bells are clanging,
A sub-audial cacophony of eager voices
discharging their erotically-charged salvos
Devices cry to be fed.
Now subliminal texts tattoo
a finger pulsing moment.
Thumbs are itching to be mugged, in-plugged,
abused in a bath of warmed-over news.
The scaly parrots are now too loud to hear,
we are near
our minds nailed to a printing block
and tapping impatiently
as reality is swiped this way and that.
The racetrack is galloping,
white rabbits are being
yanked out of top hats so rapidly
we can only blink our replies
in a hand-held, wide-eyed chameleon sky.
Here it comes passed starting,
close to the end of the party
in between the laughter and the jokes
the first last kiss of goodbye to hope
as the apocalyptic clock
holds a breath at two minutes locked
waiting for the word
push button feared to be heard
lost to common sense slurred -
who's the man of the hour
if all is lost, what good is power?
Threat and rhetoric
displaces time and leverage
and children bow and cover
in threat of losing what life once discovered
in past forgotten wars abhorred
memory disposed by bombs and swords
could the mind or time erase
the holocaust of the human race?
Step away a second,
give peace, diplomacy a chance
there is nothing beyond this chicken dance.
Updated for Doomsday Clock 2/10/2018
I was a child
Before push button phones
When party lines were popular
And long distance calls
Went through an operator
Four one, one (411)
Did not exist
You would call the operator
And nine one, one
Was a long way off
In the future
The first two numbers
Were represented by a name
Like nightingale, getney
Nightingale 8 6000
Was really 648 6000
I remember push button phones
And how wonderful it was
And how quick it was
To make calls
I also remember
When I was teenager
The first answering machines
Which allowed the caller
To leave a “fifteen second” message
Without a second chance
I remember making up
Funny messages
And I also remember
When I first got call forwarding
And I would forward all my calls
To weather information
In Hawaii!... but
Times have changed
Things have changed
I have gotten old
And the phone
Is no longer as much fun
As it use to be
But please don’t call me
Unless
You would like to speak
To Mr. Margulies
In Alaska
" The Slot Machine Senryu ... "
The One Arm Bandit
Stole From A Casino Cruise
... Push Button Pirate
Written & Copyrighted ©: 1/30/2014
by: MoonBee Canady
Suffering with a toothache
Started on the weekend
Appointment on Monday
See the Dentist at ten
This was no wimpy ache
A “King Kong” of a hurt
I kept on popping pills
Still pain would not avert
By that Monday morning
Pain spreading through my chin
At the end of my rope
Somehow this pain must end
We were at the building
A little before nine
We arrived there early
Hoping to save some time
Office on the third floor
I said, “Let’s take the stairs”
“No”, said my lovely wife,
“Elevator’s right there”
Push button number three
We started going up
Got between two and three
When it stopped abrupt
I pushed the HELP button
Then we heard someone say
“Maintenance has been called
So help is on its way”
“I’m in pain, need relief
Just how long might it be?”
“Takes them an hour or two
At worst it could be three”
“Should’ve gone up the stairs
But I listened to you”
"WELL",
“Here’s another fine mess
You’ve gotten me into”
Suffering with a toothache
Started on the weekend
Appointment on Monday
See the Dentist at ten
This was no wimpy ache
A “King Kong” of a hurt
I kept on popping pills
Still pain would not avert
By that Monday morning
Pain spreading through my chin
At the end of my rope
Somehow this pain must end
We were at the building
A little before nine
We arrived there early
Hoping to save some time
Office on the third floor
I said, “Let’s take the stairs”
“No”, said my lovely wife,
“Elevator’s right there”
Push button number three
We started going up
Got between two and three
When it stopped abrupt
I pushed the HELP button
Then we heard someone say
“Maintenance has been called
So help is on its way”
“I’m in pain, need relief
Just how long might it be?”
“Takes them an hour or two
At worst it could be three”
“Should’ve gone up the stairs
But I listened to you”
“Here’s another fine mess
You’ve gotten me into”