wingless

By doll on the rag



on hard days
i grab the telephone
and call an angel


(please, stop right there with what you're thinking)



(just believe me for a minute)



i call an angel
and he never says hello

he laughs
and says he knew
i would call today


strange to listen to a voice
that's no voice at all
but more a plucking
of heart-turned-harp strings


i say 'he'
because
i know he's neither
but i'm enamored with the idea
of a boy who looks like a girl

(it's a guilty pleasure)


i ask what he's doing

"watching the clouds go by between my toes..."


i say that i am, too

(i just don't explain
i've got my feet up on the windowsill
and the clouds are really
too many thousands of miles away)



he won't explain to me
what it's like to fly

only what it's like to fall



i tell him i have to imagine that, too

i've never fallen ten feet
in my entire life


(not because i'm lucky


i'm just afraid of heights)




we've never wondered
how the telephone cord reaches

and we've never argued
over who has to pay the bill
this month


(somehow, it's never my turn)


then sometimes
i say something clever
and he laughs:
a fine, twinkling sound
that makes my toes curl

he says


"you're an angel."



i finger the buckled straps
that hold my wings on
and wonder if he's watching







Unauthorized Copying Is Prohibited. Ask the author first.
Copyright 2005 doll on the rag
Published on Sunday, September 18, 2005.     Filed under: "Poetry"
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Comments on "wingless"

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  • A former member wrote: I wonder if the reference to the angle telling you how it is to fall is suggesting that he is a fallen angel. You write beautifully...

  • beautifulfallenangel On Friday, December 8, 2006, beautifulfallenangel (63)By person wrote:

    ASTONDING AMAZINMG

  • redtearswhitesnow On Tuesday, October 4, 2005, redtearswhitesnow (79)By person wrote:

    I had to come back to this to soothe my aching heart.

  • Anth On Monday, September 19, 2005, Anth (1133)By person wrote:

    captivating, i was utterly lost in the beauty of this, smiling ...it read like a swift breeze of summer childhood memory

  • doll on the rag On Monday, September 19, 2005, doll on the rag (200)By person wrote:

    tcha... you're far too nice, you know that?

  • A former member wrote: *Stiffles a sob* Oh my gorgeous gosh...this was amazingly enchanted. Every line...every word...screamed perfection of imagery...this is beyond any thought of amazing I've ever had...I loved this. *Evangel*

  • Elegant Kiss On Sunday, September 18, 2005, Elegant Kiss (182)By person wrote:

    ..

  • Elegant Kiss On Sunday, September 18, 2005, Elegant Kiss (182)By person wrote:

    If I could comment on this, I would be able to define beautiful. A word that always seems devalued except in your voice.

  • Elegant Kiss On Sunday, September 18, 2005, Elegant Kiss (182)By person wrote:

    Your pictures are always in my head.. peach trees and forget me nots.. you are the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do.

  • Elegant Kiss On Sunday, September 18, 2005, Elegant Kiss (182)By person wrote:

    It's absurd that you're not near me. Amanda, you lovely thing.. you're my good news day.

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