He’d yell before I went anywhere
especially if it was with a boy.
He thought there were payphones
everywhere.
I guess he forgot
we didn’t live
on a Philly city block anymore.
We lived in South Jersey;
cow and horses,
who didn’t use payphones,
outgrazed people.
But when I’d remind him,
he’d just insist,
Take dimes!
It took a few years,
but payphones went up to a quarter.
I realized,
Now, I can get Daddy to stop giving me heavy rolls of dimes!
Before I went out next time, he bellowed,
Take dimes!
Triumphant, I smirked.
Payphones are a quarter now, Daddy.
Stumped silent,
he stared at me.
Then he persisted,
You always take dimes!
Before our wedding ceremony,
Daddy handed my almost-husband and me a roll of dimes.
You need me, you call me
Deb Freedman is a Bucks County resident of many years. Connected by dear local friends, she appreciates its poetry-sparking environments, from beautiful Williamson Park in Morrisville, the Delaware Canal stretching through historic Yardley as well as a variety of scenic parks.
Poet’s Corner is curated by Bucks County Poet Laureate Emeritus Tom Mallouk and supported by a grant to the Bucks County Herald Foundation made possible by Marv and Dee Ann Woodall.
To submit a poem for consideration, email it to Heraldpoetscorner@gmail.com. If the poem has been previously published, please say where it first appeared.
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