My Death Space Dot Com

Now that obituaries come online

with coroner reports and full disclosure,

imagine the ways to betray a man

come out of hiding to die. Ask the bloggers

who weigh in on my friend’s bad habit,

who make of it their own drug strung out

across a mirror, so when they pay tribute

to their power, how they had their doubts

about his talent, his flu, I think how lucky

I was to receive the kindness of the weak.

My death space, as they call it, as if it’s me

who died. A life, we know, is complex.

But death is simple. A place to talk shit,

to license grief, or barring that, to kill it.