phone call
Matt Robinson
i made a holden caulfield phone call
once:
stumbled up the stairs of some
hole in the ground bar.
(and it was literally below street level,
jam-packed with perverts and phony old
men- all smoking and carrying on...)
anyway, like i said, i made this phone call-
just like holden caulfield, except
i was in halifax, (of course), and well,
he was in new york: the big apple, as
they say.
but it was just like holden caulfield-
reminiscent of the book, as i stumbled up
the steps and listed over to the phone.
i got a quarter from my pocket, as there
were quite a few in there. you know
you always have all quarters, and loonies
when you’ve been out for a night of
drinking. drinking draft beer all night,
i had. lots of quarters for the phone.
so i dialed up this old girlfriend -but
i got the # right the first time-
although holden tried a few.
so i’m a nineties holden caulfield
standing drunk there at a payphone,
calling sally haynes in the wee hrs.
of the morning. ’course her name wasn’t
sally haynes, and it was summer, not
winter as i stood there. but i was
drunk and on the phone just like holden
caulfield late at night.
and she answered, (the girl i called),
not her grandmother like in the book.
but she did ask where i was just like
sally had asked holden. yes, i was
drunk just like holden caulfield on
a payphone late at night. and it
seemed just like the book itself, but
perhaps i haven’t got it right.
