Pass the Phone

Three rings. She always answers on three
The whole house is waiting

Every Sunday, four my time
The phone rings home like a church bell
My mother answers mid-first-sentence —
She'd already claimed the chair for it
The phone begins its journey
Kitchen, verandah, gate, and back
Passed from hand to hand like communion
Every voice a course in the meal
Uncle wants to talk investment
Gogo just wants to hear me breathe

One hour, one phone, one family
Orbiting a voice
The week can do its worst to me —
Sunday reloads the joy

The Sunday call! (pass the phone)
Every voice at home takes a turn
One hour of hands around one signal —
The Sunday call. That's my church

Pass it. (to gogo)
Pass it. (to the yard)

Mm. (pass the phone)
Mm. (to the yard)

The Sunday call! (pass the phone)

The small ones fight to hold the phone now
Shouting school marks at my ear
My brother takes me to the garden —
The maize is this tall, can you hear?
I can hear it. I can hear everything
The gate, the pots, the gospel station
My mother shushing the whole compound —
Let me hear my son in peace
Then her voice alone, the last ten minutes
Are you eating? Are you resting? Come home soon

One hour, one phone, one family
Orbiting a voice
The week can do its worst to me —
Sunday reloads the joy

The Sunday call! (pass the phone)
Every voice at home takes a turn
One hour of hands around one signal —
The Sunday call. That's my church

The Sunday call! (pass the phone)
The Sunday call. That's my church

Truth is, I plan my whole week backwards from it
Miss a Sunday? Never happened. Never will
The day the network failed for hours
My mother walked to the hilltop by the water tank
And stood there till a single bar appeared
She got through. Of course she got through
That's who I'm the son of

The Sunday call! (pass the phone)
Every voice at home takes a turn
She'd climb a hill for a single bar —
The Sunday call. That's my church

Nobody says goodbye first
We say: till Sunday