Debt Collection
The hall outside
the room where
nana lay dying:
I picked up,
over a bad line
a voice asked
if I really cared,
if I had my priorities straight,
if I understood credit
card agreements, family
obligations. I didn’t
bother to respond,
just clicked off,
not for the first time,
prepared to go deeper
into the hole-
home before the end
of visiting hours.
Originally from Massachusetts, Noel Sloboda currently lives in Pennsylvania, where he teaches at
Penn State York. His poetry has appeared in a variety of places, recently in Arbor
Vitae, bottle rockets, Pen Pusher, and MiPoesis.
Sloboda’s first book of poetry, Shell Games (sunnyoutside, 2008),
was released this summer.