EVERYBODY got ‘em a cell phone pissant with not a nickel to pay his rent got him one i ain’t got one or the quarter to use this pay phone sittin’ there behind me waitin' for me to feed it and hear that jingle like some slot machine that always pays out temptin’ me like some shiny new toy but i got two pennies and i ain’t even rubbin' them together back then, back when nobody had no cell phone i filed pennies down on the street to make them the size of dimes when one of them dimes could by me a marshmallow pie from a vendin’ machine at the bowlin’ alley that ain’t there no more but some cell phone store is but that don’t matter i don’t want no cell phone i would like me one of them marshmallow pies and an extra quarter to give this hungry phone yesterday, some lady give me three quarters and i give two of them to Jose to call his mama and sister he gave me two smiles i kept that other quarter to make a call but couldn’t think of no number or no soul want to hear my voice so i give that quarter to a little boy who was all alone and didn’t have no cell phone
**inspired by a photo of a homeless person, sitting on a bench, leaning on his mobile shopping cart home, with a pay phone behind him--one of a series of poems I wrote that were inspired by the photos of the Texas homeless--I was in a Langston Hughes mood when I wrote it--wish we could post images with our work here, for the picture is far more poignant than my simple words