There are a few people in my life, that I keep very close to my heart. I always make sure to keep one saved voicemail from these loved ones, so that if something ever happened
to them, I would still have
the sound of their voice
to carry around with me
in my pocket.
Whenever I admit this to people, they laugh as if it’s
a trivial thing to do,
and then when what I’ve just said sinks in
and their smile disappears, I can see my words reflect in their eyes.
"Oh," they respond. “I never thought
to do that...”
I can see them trying to pull
out the sound of their dad’s voice
from the shelves of their memory,
the words, “I’m proud of you, bud”
playing over and over again in their head.
And that’s when I know, that the
next time their loved one calls asking what
time they’ll be home and fits in a quick
"love you" before hanging up,
they’ll think twice about
pressing delete.
