She dials the only number that made sense.
She called collect
barely able to say her name.
She heard her voice
falling to the floor weeping.
The friend repeating her name
through her gasps for air.
She found a voice
to frame the words
to make the sounds.
Her voice trembling with emotion
told of the betrayl.
Her body crumpled against a window stretching the cord.
Tears
and snot
and sobs
were as one.
The friend paying for the call
listened to her breaking heart.
She said all that her mind could comprehend.
She picked herself up from the floor
returned the phone to its cradle.
She found her way through the turnstile,
onto the platform,
into her subway car
where she folded herself in the last seat
weeping as the city went past her window.
