"Please Write: Don't Phone" - Robert Watson

I spent a lot of time yesterday - hours, actually - browsing through the selection of "crafty" books at Barnes and Noble.  Some were really cool!  I love one called Good Mail Day (Hinchcliff/Wheeler) that included this poem, which I really like a lot.

Please Write:  Don't Phone

While there is mail there is hope.
After we have hung up I can't recall
Your words, and  your voice sounds strange
Whether from distance, a bad cold, deceit
I don't know.  When you call I'm asleep
Or bathing or my mouth is full of toast.
I can't think of what to say.
"We have rain"? "We have snow"?
Let us write instead: surely our fingers spread out
With pen on paper touch more of the mind's flesh
Than the sound waves moving from throat to lips.
To phone, to wire, to one ear.
I can touch the paper you touch.
I can see  you undressed in your calligraphy.
I can read you over and over.
I can read you day after day.
I can wait at the mailbox with my hair combed,
In my best suit.
I hang up.  What did you say?
What did you say?  Your phone call is gone.
I hold the envelope you addressed in my hand.
I hold the skin that covers  you.

                             Robert Watson
                             from Good Mail Day (Hinchcliff/Wheeler)