The Address Book
How could I predict
That my life wd become whatever,
So many people
Passing thru—address books
Filled with names & numbers
I no longer recognize,
Pages torn loose,
Addresses crossed out,
Lives badly smudged,
Decades of earnest grief,
Missed opportunities,
Phones disconnected.
What am I now?
Just another old man
Among old men.
Turn the calendar upside down
& let the days fall out.
That my life wd become whatever,
So many people
Passing thru—address books
Filled with names & numbers
I no longer recognize,
Pages torn loose,
Addresses crossed out,
Lives badly smudged,
Decades of earnest grief,
Missed opportunities,
Phones disconnected.
What am I now?
Just another old man
Among old men.
Turn the calendar upside down
& let the days fall out.
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Disclaimer
We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2015 by Louis Phillips, "The Address Book" from The Domain of Silence; The Domain of Absence: New & Selected Poems, (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Louis Phillips and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.