I was looking for a cord to charge my phone

I was looking for a cord to charge my phone

when I found the old landline in a box.

I plugged it in just to hear the sound,

to see if the copper wires still had a pulse.

The dial tone is a flat, mechanical drone,

an indifferent noise that doesn't care

if I have a person left to call.

It’s the sound of a room with nobody in it.

The coiled gray wire is thick with dust,

stretching down toward the baseboard.

It’s a tether to a time when we knew

how to let a conversation actually end.