Backward Mutters

Here is a poem based on day five’s November Poem a Day Challenge poetry prompt from The Poetry Pub. The prompt is “telephone.”

Incidentally, November marks the 54 anniversary of Glen Campbell’s release of “Wichita Lineman.” I love what songwriter Jimmy Webb said of his song, “…you can see someone working in construction or working in a field, a migrant worker or a truck driver, and you may think you know what’s going on inside him, but you don’t. You can’t assume that just because someone’s in a menial job that they don’t have dreams…or extraordinary concepts going around in their head, like ‘I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.’ You can’t assume that a man isn’t a poet.”

As the town fevers under the evening 
Autumn sky, “Wichita Lineman” plays 
On the radio. 1968 
Telephones. And I? I find myself 
In the back of the family Pontiac
Where Dad and I wait in the Big Bear
Parking lot, Campbell on the radio,
Mom inside to shop.

In the lineman’s song, 
I first heard word of something I hadn’t
Known I wanted, for what I’d been “searchin’ 
In the sun,” of the need that’s more than want,
And the want that’s for all time.

In that ’68 November, Longing
Called, singing in the wire, And like 
the Wichita lineman, I’m still on the line. 

© Randall Edwards 2022