The Cutest Girl in Class - March 24 2023

 

The Cutest Girl in Class

March 24 2023

You won’t remember this,

but when there was only one phone

attached to the wall

with a coiled cord

that stretched only so far,

everyone could overhear

your most embarrassing moments.

It was middle school,

and when the cutest girl in class

called for help with her math

(because that was the one thing you were good at)

it was an out-of-body experience;

you had no problem solving for “x”,

but that 2nd X chromosome

made your head spin.

Who knows what you said;

but after that

she still ignored you.

As if you were a wrong number

or an irrational one,

a big zero

divided by itself.

The phone was a big black brick

and indestructible.

Before planned obsolescence.

Before plastic choked the oceans

and landfills overflowed.

It rang

with a shrill intrusive sound;

no personalized rings

no silencing.

The thought

still makes you flush   —

tethered to the wall

by that fully stretched cord

in the hot steamy kitchen

as your mom did the dishes

and listened in.

The girl now lives

in a mouldy extra-wide

in a dusty trailer park

where the dirt roads

turn muddy in spring.

She's living with a man

she never really loved

and their 3 young kids;

with each one, got a little fatter

and it hasn’t come off.

She no longer has your number,

would never remember the call.