Madam and the Phone Bill
Madam and the Phone Bill - meaning Summary
Pride Over a Phone Bill
A wry, colloquial monologue in which a Black woman refuses to accept responsibility for a long-distance telephone charge from a man who called to profess love. She rebukes the caller, defends her dignity, and asserts economic and emotional independence with humor and vernacular speech. The poem turns a private domestic dispute into a broader, characterful statement about pride, everyday survival, and social manners in African American urban life.
Read Complete AnalysesYou say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then! I'm mad and disgusted With that Negro now. I don't pay no REVERSED CHARGES nohow. You say, I will pay it-- Else you'll take out my phone? You better let My phone alone. I didn't ask him To telephone me. Roscoe knows darn well LONG DISTANCE Ain't free. If I ever catch him, Lawd, have pity! Calling me up From Kansas City. Just to say he loves me! I knowed that was so. Why didn't he tell me some'n I don't know? For instance, what can Them other girls do That Alberta K. Johnson Can't do--and more, too? What's that, Central? You say you don't care Nothing about my Private affair? Well, even less about your PHONE BILL, does I care! Un-humm-m! . . . Yes! You say I gave my O.K.? Well, that O.K. you may keep-- But I sure ain't gonna pay!
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