My Heart Leaps Up (Poetry)

My heart leaps up each time I hear the phone,
the reason for its strident summoning
imagined ten times over. No one’s home
so I let the hapless caller ring and ring.

I dare not answer but I can’t be wrong,
it must be him, my jumping heart insists,
our past connection’s faint but hanging on
long distance, the old number still exists.

My heart leaps up and hope, determined, springs
like some dumb kitten at a clockwork mouse,
I’m duped by love’s simplistic slant on things
and glimpse its phantom flitting through the house.

Each night he used to call me, dead on eight,
my body clock still counts the hours round,
I listen out — the habit’s hard to break —
anticipate that sudden surge of sound.

My heart leaps up compulsively and wings
brief flights of fancy, triggered by the phone —
that teasing echo rings and rings and rings
then stops, and silence soothes its mocking tone.

The jarring inner voice speaks true and plain,
this cruel deception really can’t go on —
be still, my heart, be calm, at peace again —
repeat the words he’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone!