A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms
A Poetry Sporadical of Repeating Forms
When they plan their own deaths they disagree.
For my dad it’s stats and calculations.
He asks, Where will my children visit me?
My mom makes plans to live well past ninety
and says, Ten years without him sounds like fun.
When they plan their own deaths they disagree.
They move beyond the burden of body
and my dad frets over the piece of ground,
wondering where will my children visit me?
My mom shrugs off caskets and cemeteries,
finding peace in the heat of cremation.
When they plan their own deaths they disagree.
My dad’s main wish is not to be lonely.
He sees a green hill facing the sun
and says that’s where my kids will visit me.
We children hear the possibilities—
dust, stone—but to believe that they’ll be gone
according to plan? We have to disagree.
We will come when they say please visit me.
Jennifer Fandel’s poetry credits include Calyx, Gulf Stream, Off-Channel, Naugatuck River Review, and Natural Bridge, as well as A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (University of Akron Press). She is a freelance writer and editor, as well as a contributing editor for River Styx.