The Telephone

“who pay a fortune
to ship this relic”
—David Trinidad, “Black Telephone,”
The Best American Poetry 2010,

Truman Capote's unfinished novel—
Answered Prayers, titled after a quote
By Saint Teresa: "More tears are shed
Over answered prayers than…
Unanswered ones."

The missing chapters—
From Capote’s Answered Prayers,
Like the missing notes from Sylvia
Plath’s Journals waiting somewhere
To be found when it’s time?

Meanwhile the Black Phone—
Rings & rings, nobody to answer,
Except you & me, voyeur listeners
Tense like a movie audience in
“Sorry, Wrong Number.”

Like Sylvia's neighbor Percy Key—
Waiting, dying “Among the Narcissi,”
The voice of Ariel emerges, fully-fledged,
Terrifying her with this dark thing
That sleeps in all of us.