Call
(After Vera Pavlova)
Often, the phone
in the corner starts crying
and I come running to calm it.
It’s my mother, again, calling
to tell me of the problem with today.
She’s the only person in my life,
to have studied my ear,
as a baby, quiet at her breast,
or else not listening at all, while
I cried out for her attention only.
Richie McCaffery is in the final stages of a PhD in Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of two pamphlets, including Spinning Plates from HappenStance Press, as well as the book-length collection Cairn published by Nine Arches Press in 2014.