Dusting the Phone is about infatuation and the frustration of love. The poem鈥檚 content, ideas, language and structure are explored. Comparisons and alternative interpretations are also considered.
Jackie Kay鈥檚 anxious and edgy poem traces the thoughts and feelings of someone waiting for a call from a lover. The speaker describes the frustrations of 鈥榟oaxes, wrong numbers鈥 and boring calls.
Kay ironically details the narrator鈥檚 attempts to bargain with the phone by dusting and polishing it. Other desperate acts include staring at the lover鈥檚 photo, 鈥榓ssaulting鈥 the postman in the hope of a letter from the lover and imagining the delivery of a bouquet of flowers.
Nothing changes. But, trapped by the situation, the narrator continues to wait by the silent phone for that hoped-for call.