« Oh rotary telephone
with your skill- attention-
and patience-requiring tactile dial

    brrrrrrrrt
   trrrrrrrrb
    brrrt
    trrrb
    brrrrrrrrrrt
    trrrrrrrrrrrb

and your terrific bell
brrrRiiing!

you’ve long been of the past »

    muses the Widow Wyile
    who is a proud owner of a solid
    and handsome
    made in Canada
    black 1969 model
    bought at the Edmonton
    Telephone Museum
    circa 1996
happily used through til ‘23

            now forced to retire
            as it can only take calls
            not make them

what a hold out
of thirty forty
plus years

When she sticks her index finger
into a numbered hole to brrrrrring
the dial to four o’clock
where the scooped silver stopper sits
and releases
the sounds
bring her straight
back to childhood
to feeling adept
to feeling the anticipation
of connection

the weight of the receiver
feels good in her hand
the whole exercise
a spot of time travel
that calls up a variety of destinations
situations
            remember party lines?
phone colours and models
including the musical innovation
of the first pushbutton phones
                        whose pulses too
are now outdated
that were similarly squat and solid
yet
that dial pad
     now ubiquitous
provided new ways of visualizing
and memorizing numbers

because back then
you knew your numbers
and you kept a book
or at least a list
for those you dialed less often

you knew where the phone was
when it was attached to the wall
and even after jacks came along
there were only so many places
to look
            should someone
have    moved
                         the phone
no doubt
   in search of              privacy

ah me
            oh my
so much time
so much malleable
            ductile copper line
a weighty worthwhile investment
now nearing extinction
as the clever cables that create
their very own power
have     been     left   to    slide
are      being     taken     up
all in the name of speed and versatility
but woe betide ye
when the power is out
and upon batteries you must count
farewell POTS reliability!
and yes           here nostalgia
turns to consternation and fulmination

Aside from the many biological harms
of all things wireless
that regulatory agencies skirt around
the system seems more susceptible
to flagitious risks untold
than ye plain olde telephone service
with its twisted pairs
of handsome copper cables
buried safely underground
strung between telephone poles
where birds perch in telling lines
land lines
linking lives
curly cords that spin
from the weight of the receiver
you drop deliberately
to untangle the snarl
from stretching it farther
to see if you can just reach
that slightly out of reach object
the audible thunk
when it becomes apparent
the pen the pot the paper
truly is too far
away
these gymnastics
now all but forgotten
in the age of accursed
pocketed small computers
entities that run lives remotely
the perilous trade off
for alleged convenience
farewell landline
heretofore grounded five nine*
reliable friend

hello airline    —not so
internet line called protocol
cloud phone?
how do I do?
now there can only be
         one
         just
         ONE
corded line
            well, you can manage two
            in the same place
            hardly practical

The Widow Wyile does well
to remember
how it was
how we’ve been had
            gone from skilled dialing
            to punching numbers
            or rather
to punching names
whose numbers
                        including their own
most no longer know
lines that could be cut or tapped
are not a patch on what
            what??
has become manipulated
corporate communication
political juggernaut
big brother party line

turning turning
turning you into lucrative data
to boot
oh dear oh dear
how we’ve been fooled
by up and down load speeds
air fracking signals
that fry life force
foolhardy illusion
surely why the choice
of older fashioned alternatives
are being withdrawn
all the better
to watch you with my dears
be your devices off
or on
oh brrrring
a ling
ding

in       20      24
we     say    fond
fare well   Cu
5-9   line    #29
bye    0       bye

*99.999%

Landline Farewell