Sometimes people die and
lots of people care but are not close
and somebody has to be the person
to call them up
and say,
I have bad news, the worst news, I’m sorry
I remember when I was called
with bad news, the worst news
I don’t know who
I would have expected
to call me
but I don’t think it was the someone
who did
I wonder who would call
the people who ought to know
if some morning I wasn’t in this world?
I wonder if people would get left out
and never know? Or find out years too late?
Sometimes I am afraid that
that has happened, and somebody
I hold dear and was once close to
is not in this world and I
grew too far to be alerted and
don’t know.
I wonder
how
to prevent
such a thing,
and I wonder if
such small isolations
are really just
what the world is made of.