Ode to the Payphone

Once you stood a flaming red on the sidewalks of lively towns
Now there you sit, defeated, deflated, beat by the unruly grounds

Once your sign, “Telephone”, was lit and would brightly beam
Now bugs litter your fixtures and you have ceased to sparkle or gleam

Once you were seen as romantic, a must in every love story
Now you’ve become a beggar’s nesting place and have seemingly lost your glory

Oh these bustling cities that have pawned and forgotten you
They can’t even remember all you have done for them and all you still do

On those rainy nights when their relationship seems in danger
They’ll call up their love in the sanctity of your manger

And you connect them with their loved ones who live so far away
And for this, a quarter is all they have to pay

Oh payphone, you can call so many places but alas, not out to them
You can’t call to tell them how their forgetfulness has made you dim and dim

But, I hear you payphone, I hear your cry
Never will I let you be forgotten; never will I let you die