where I work
when you die.
Each month
there are two or three more faces
peering out of the past
wearing hair styles of yesterday
and we are told
that this woman had seven grandchildren
or that this gentleman
loved to grow tomatoes
and had built his own house.
And so I know
that someday
when I die
strangers will be eating their donuts at work
and drinking their coffee
and see my face
and wonder
“Who is this geezer”?
and they’ll check to see if I built my own house.
But the way I see it
my tomatoes are my own business
and I’m not interested in satisfying anybody’s casual curiosity
and so I want my obituary to say
“He’s dead. And that's all”
And that’s all.