When the phone rings at 3am
you can write it off as a butt dial
if you want, if you don’t want
your precious sleep disturbed,
if you want to roll back to your dreams,
regardless of whether you’ve dreamed
(your sleeping not being in question,
not at this hour. Not at 3am.).
Yet this is no butt dial. No one sleeps
with a phone in their pocket.
You’d be lying if you tried to deny
the import of this 3am call
this 3am call under the guise of a ruse.
A better friend would pick it up.
A better friend will answer and ask what’s up
and not pretend that the phone is off,
that the phone is charging,
that you thought this call was a butt dial.
The excuse is not for the good friend
for this is the time, 3am, to show
what kind of friend you are.
People text at 3 when they’re drunk.
No answer expected. People sext
when they’re horny. No sext is expected
back. What they don’t do is call,
not at 3am, because a phone call begs
a sound reason, plus the capacity
to string words together, to make sense
without slurring, anything else
would be a really bad friend.
Dear God, when the phone rings at 3am,
you can rest assured that it’s bad,
thus it’s best not to overthink,
to maybe blink twice then answer,
to not worry about being half-awake,
because you’re about to wake up,
wake up like you’ve never awakened before,
not catching your breath or getting focused
because you can see who this is
and you’re about to hear the worst,
the worst news ever and here it comes
when the phone rings at 3am.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 23, Issue 5.
Drew Pisarra is the author of Infinity Standing Up, a collection of homoerotic sonnets published by Capturing Fire Press, and You’re Pretty Gay, a collection of short fiction published by Chaffinch Press. A co-founder of the poetry activation group Saint Flashlight, he is also a literary grantee of Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation and Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators.
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