Rail against ‘The Blue Bell’ Line - or Ex-Directory

Instead of fingering her hair,

or me busy with bearded curls,

we fiddled with the coiling cord,

a wind-up, tangled slinky mess,

just as an unkempt junction box,

with party lines, of stranger times.

This model’s lost expected sheen,

its user dirty with the phone -

a garage backroom office, till

oiled greasy hands - the gloves are off -

calendar girls, hooks on the wall,

less trunk than a long distance call.

The ambidextrous challenge here

for me, yet of old fashioned ways,

this telephone, left handed set,

for Salt Lake City, Utah code;

then known round here as STD,

too many lines, polygamous.