The daily feature (February 25, 2009) on the Writers’ Almanac is a perfect poem for me…..it is titled "Bridal Shower" and describes, poetically, the experience of one person sitting in a coffee shop, being forced to listen to unwanted cell phone conversations. It is too perfect!!!!! Here it is:
BRIDAL SHOWER "Perhaps, in a distant cafe/ four or five people are talking with the four or five who are chatting on their cell phones this morning/ in my favorite cafe. And perhaps someone there, some one like me, is watching them frown or smile or shrug/at their inisible friends or lovers,/ jabbing at the air for emphasis./ And like me, he misses the old days/ when talking to yourself/ meant you were crazy, back when crazy was a big deal/ not just an acronym/ or something you could take a pill for. / I liked it when people who were talking to themselves/ might actually be talking to God/ or an Angel. / You respected people like that./ You didn’t want to kill them, as I want to kill the woman at the next table/ with the little blue light on her ear/ who has been telling the emptiness in front of her/ about her daughter’s bridal shower/ in astonishing detail/ for the past thirty minutes. / O person like me,/ phoneless in your distant cafe, / I wish we could meet to discuss this, / and perhaps you would help me murder this woman on her cell phone,/ after which we could have a cup of coffee/ maybe a bagel, and talk to each other, face to face. " (poem by George Bilgere)
I want to thank my friend Fran, for alerting me to this most meaningful of poems…..it has said all the thoughts I have thought over the years of trying to tolerate the senselessness of the constant chattering on cell phones—-in cafes, in stores, while driving, and yesterday….while walking the track at the Detroit Lakes Community Center.
When has "Get A Life!" ever had more meaning than this present age of cell phone talking, endless "texting" and the general addiction to things Technological.
Where has REAL face- to- face, good, earnest, meaningful, reasoned conversation been dropped? Once upon a time, it was one of the best parts of our culture. I miss it terribly, especially when I find myself sitting in a situation like this poet has so wonderfully described. I wish I could thank you, George Bilgere…….. face-to-face.
