Donal Calls Home
A Work in Progress
123
Once upon a time in 1969
if you wanted to call London
you asked the Operator in New York
to connect you and you were passed to an operator
at London’s International Phone Exchange
When connected Donal asked
if his mother happened to be on shift
they weren’t on the best terms
because when Donal came back home from Nigeria
he’d left home to be a volunteer in Nigeria
he found himself barred at the door by Bill
his mother’s suitor
his friend Colin witnessed the door slam
Donal didn’t see his mother again
except once years later after he was married
he took his wife to meet her
long before the Londoner had tramped the Street...
listened to her many tales
who knew so many by their feet
Doris married Bill an accountant
A careful man who wore gloves to drive into town
She came to see Donal act in the school play
His mother couldn’t come working on night shift
His mother never did see him act in plays
Doris lurked outside their curtained windows
Bill inside in the front room with Donal’s mother
Imagine the tableau
Donal doing homework in his bedroom
His sister off by herself
Mother and Bill in the front room
behind closed doors
Doris outside the curtained windows of No. 9
Donal could write a screenplay
*
Sing to me muse as once you sang
you who love me don’t let me hang
sing to me now don’t let the door bang
tell of Penelope in a nightie telling Donal her son
he never slept
Odysseus
he never slept
with pajama bottoms on
a diffident child
lustrous Penelope
Odysseus’ son
unhugged
unheard
Sing to me muse as once you sang
you who love me don’t let me hang
sing to me now don’t let the door bang
*
Abigail Morris in front of Last Dinner Party dancing on stage
inspired by Mick with a hand-held mic
she’d watched him when they opened for the Stones
Briseis opened that link for Donal
He’d logged on again to rejoin the resistance
Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
2026
