When The Phone Rings Poem by Pearl L Johns

You never know what will happen when the phone rings.
Will it be great news, like last week when my friend called?
To tell me her cancer is in remission.
Will it just be a telemarketer wanting to sell me something I don’t need?
Will it be an old friend I hadn’t heard from in a long time reaching out to say hello?
Or will it be like the phone call I had tonight to tell me that a woman I went to school with all my life
Had died last night along with her sister in a car crash.
I haven’t seen this woman in at least five years.
But I cry inside for her children, one a grown man, one just a child.
When I see her face in my mind we are back in second grade
Sitting on the steps at recess and sharing secrets.
I see her pregnant with her first child, an unmarried mother facing so many fears.
I see her pregnant with her second child, ecstatic and looking forward to the new life growing in her.
But mostly when I see her in my mind, I see her smile. She always had a ready smile for everyone.
Goodbye for now my friend.
I will see you again.