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Annotated by:
- Woodcock, John
- Date of entry: Jun-25-2004
Summary
In twenty-four short lines and colloquial diction, this poem movingly conveys the immense change that the deaths of several people close to the speaker have made in the simple act of answering the phone. "Used to / you'd say / Hello / and think nothing of it," the poem begins, but after the deaths "all that changed / and you think / now before you answer the phone / you take a deep breath . . ."
Miscellaneous
Also published in Literature and Medicine 3: 129 (1985)
Primary Source
In All This Rain
Publisher
Louisiana State Univ. Press
Place Published
Baton Rouge
Edition
1980
Commentary