John Grey
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Sin Fronteras, Dalhousie Review and Qwerty with work upcoming in Plainsongs, Willard and Maple and Connecticut River Review.
REGARDING THE OBITUARIES
I’m reading Ted’s obituary
in the back pages of today’s newspaper
in a coffee house
where some teenagers sip
and tap on their laptops
and others chat and text;
we once shared an apartment
in the poor part of town,
a diary of beans and mice
and making do –
the obit informs me
he had a mother and a father
(both deceased)
and a sister still living
in Salinas, California.
but nothing about
how every day
he’d cut himself shaving
with his favorite rusty blade
or the way he made trumpet noises
just with his mouth
like he was some kind of
vocal Dizzy Gillespie;
that’s the trouble with obituaries –
they treat the dead like they’re dead;
I go on reading my newspaper,
some teenagers sip and tap
on their laptops,
others chat and text;
they haven’t got to the obituaries yet –
someone they know
could be there
when they do.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 