Work Text:
She said “Don’t leave me
I can’t be here much longer
So don’t leave me
At least wait ‘till the line disconnects.”
When she’d call me at my work
They'd say “she's telling sweet nothings I bet,”
But I'd always wait for the line to disconnect
And today on the way home
The streets and the rain and just
Thinking I should call her
- Ask if she’s alone -
But when I reached there I was met
By a man with a fast-moving silhouette
He said she’d called just right before,
He'd run to get me as I came through the door
The call was rushed, the line was static
He didn't say it but I could tell his mind had it
What we both knew to be true but never spoke
There was always the danger before, just unprovoked
The words that haunted as I ran,
“I can't miss you yet
Please just wait for the line to disconnect.”
“Oh Tar, it's bad this time-
I'm sorry, there's a blizzard and the line-
I can’t do much but you know
I love you Tar; I love you so.”
For a moment we hovered between life and death
It felt so surreal with every breath
She'd promised me a thousand times,
Those snowy mountains weren't near the front lines
Her work was important and I watched her go
I don't regret it but now she'll never know
“I'll have to go soon but I love you so.”
I heard her voice through that phone
Filled with static and brought to me,
Just a payphone on the streets
A busy city full of people she’ll never meet
Out there, somewhere, far away from me
The snow and the cold and the running feet
And these people all around
But the silence of their footsteps
Is the only sound that ever was
And in the static of the wind,
Crying on the rain-slicked corner-bend
Clutching the one-way line
To a time that can't be again
Now surrounded by those less important than her
And these people, they don’t care or understand
Why she says what she said
When she means an impossible task,
To wait until the line disconnects
I couldn’t stay to wait because she’d never be there again
So I sat and I left her alone
When I couldn’t wait for an ending that would never come
And somewhere up there she cried as she saw it and knew
Because she was already gone
On a street corner there with that held payphone
Just me and a fading voice and a man I'd so little known
But the things that haunt you are the little ones,
Common terrible cruelties visited
And the accidental slights and shuns
The things you come later to regret
Only when you know, you now have nothing left
Were I to do it again I would
Stay forever in that storm and rain
And maybe if I never picked myself up again
There'd still be hope about the other end instead of shame
But I didn't wait for that final redirect
She always said “Don't leave me”
One last wish and I couldn't grant her that
“ Wait until the line disconnects ”