Couldn'T Call Poem by Tony Jolley

Couldn’t call.
Wasn’t sure why.

Couldn’t face the mournful music of polite rebuff:
My own words deflected
Or reflected as if in some strange, monosyllabic mirror -
Dirge-like delivery,
Devoid of intent to introduce
One single shred of personality,
Or of any promise other
Than putting this pretence out of its misery.


Couldn’t bear the charade
In which I would ‘play the part’ of a parent
Because she wouldn’t let you let me be me.