The written voicemail translation reads:
Thank you for your dissipation.
That is something I have never
been thanked for.
I was glad that finally
someone recognized the journey,
understood what it took to
get here
to this place
where I no longer
have to wonder
should I or shouldn’t I?
Years have gone past
without that being asked daily
but in truth it was my participation
in my dissipation
that has brought me
to where that question
if now asked
is floated on a tranquil sea
no longer the need to wonder
whether the answer will be a choice
between life and death
sanity or madness.
At first I laughed-
then I realized how the truth
is often disguised,
dressed in a clown suit,
cherry-nosed
with a slapper in its hand.
Charlene Stegman Moskal is published in numerous anthologies, print and online magazines, most recently in Griffel, Sandstone & Silver; an Anthology of Nevada Poets and Gyroscope. Her first chapbook is, One Bare Foot (Zeitgeist Press) with a second, Leavings From My Table, to be released October, 2022, (Finishing Line Press).
