MEMORIAL AD

You can see from the photo
That he regrets being dead
Not that he doesn't appreciate
His colleagues -- his ex-colleagues --
Buying a quarter page
In The New York Review of Books
To say they'll miss him.
(You would think he'd be beyond
Caring that the picture
Shows him hung-over
With a ragged part in his hair.)
He supposes -- you can see it
If you look at his eyes --
That time will make death
Seem natural, even easy,
But he's pretty sure he will never
Make a list titled "Ten Reasons
I'm Glad to Be Dead."