PHONE NUMBER

I still remember my phone number
from when I was a little girl.
(Do you?)
It occurs to me that
I probably never called that number,
since I was too young,
yet it has stayed with me
through all these years.
Did I learn it just from
listening to my mother
as she gave it to other people?
Or was I told to memorize it
in case I ever got lost
and had to ask an adult
to return me?
However it happened,
that number lives inside me
with a rhythm and a melody
as distinctive as any hit song.
Hit it, boys:
Hav-a-meyer six,
nine one two three.


© Ellen Azorin