27 voice messages
There are
27 voice messages
in your cell phone
I inherited –
27 missed calls
you’ll never
be able to answer.
It’s almost
7 months since
I first spotted them,
about
7 days after
the evening you left us.
I imagine
27 messages
of concern, perhaps
from faraway friends –
27 calls,
a week or a day
too late to be heard.
I won’t open them;
they’d only serve
to remind me of
the last hours I still
could hope somehow
you’d stand up.
For Dad. Ana Ribeiro, 10/02/2017