“What Will She Be?”
The beneficiary of everything
That’s what my Dad says
While Tampa rushes lively beneath
Our morning coffee teeth.
We are gathered here today to discuss death
Up in the clouds above the streets.
A blue wax ocean beneath our feet
Planes fly close to my eyelashes
I pinch them between my nails
Pinch them before anyone sees.
“You’ve done good for yourself
Since last I saw you,”
This lawyer, who resembles Dad’s father
Politely jokes looking over paper trails
Of a life’s collection of green leaves.
Dad likes to garden
We sit admiring his scraped knees.
We are gathered here today to discuss trees.
The lawyer and Dad’s head bowed low
Over dead wood with numbers and names.
The lawyer looks at me, eyes my piercings, says
“We tell the family to work like they will
Never expect growth from these seeds.”
He will live forever, of course.
One day Google will upload souls
To the cloud and like I sit here
Staring at them from my seat
I’ll just log-in, open a new window
To see Dad watching Sanford and Son
On fluffy cable TV.
A new contract with Apple! Happily I will agree
To log-in anytime to see him smiling
Resting in a cirrus tree. Cooking salmon and drinking Saki
In marble floored Florida Heaven, nothing like
A lawyer’s office. Yet I worry
I worry about how much it will cost.
Will I be able to collect the remains of what still grows?
Will it grow tall as a beanstalk, will it be
Tall enough for a new window with a view
Far from the web of loss?
“What will she be?” Dad looks at me
I think I will be a bird, I tell him
Don’t worry about me.
Say a prayer to Apple, sing silent hymns
To leaves not fallen, but to be safe, sign here:
God damnit is death really that necessary?
They shake hands; agree. My dad looks out
And sighs with relief. I’m pinching the planes
Caught in my eyes, the window is too large, the Sun-
Hey kid, Dad says, it’ll be okay.
I smile, half-hearted, Google better have a good team.
Are you hungry? He asks, because you’d better be
I know of a great spot, and lunch is on me.