Two Longs and Two Shorts

“Two Longs and Two Shorts”

—From the book Two Longs and Two Shorts

Two longs and two shorts—our phone
number on the party line, pleased me as
a child—the symmetry of it—(What if

it had been three shorts and a long? I can
see my mother now, removing the black
receiver from the hook, frowning slightly

at a series of clicks down the line,
like some remote African tongue —
neighbors listening in when Grandma Heiser

cranked our number from two miles away.
Nosy gossips. By contrast, Lena Schrock—
Mom’s maiden aunt not allowed in middle age

to take up a shop or factory job—
Lena was discretion personified, switchboard
operator on the Fisher exchange, seated

in front of a cat’s cradle of cords plugged
into the right holes at the right time,
backbone of rectitude in a rayon dress,

head phone clamped on severe hair. Lost
in this memory, gripping my smart phone
warbling, I send you on to voice mail.