November 2, Dia de los Muertos

 

An invitation in the mail,  (1)

Free dinner: therein lurks a tale.

It’s time to plan for when I go.

Are statisticians on my trail?

 

It’s time to plan for when I go?

Do they know something I don’t know?

Invited by a funeral home

To a free dinner and slide show.

 

A dinner by a funeral home:

It’s not to feed a gastronome

But guide my planning for the time

I rest beneath the sandy loam.

 

Should I be planning for the time

When rhythm fails as well as rhyme?

Have I appeared on someone’s list

Of games that are in overtime?

 

And could I ask, “Who keeps that list?

“Were there some warning signs I’ve missed?

“Or is the list just based on age,

“A number that can’t be dismissed?”

 

Was I invited based on age?

Does that suggest my time on stage

Might soon be coming to a close,

My script now on its final page?

 

Is my time coming to a close,

The end of joys, the end of woes?

And, who knows something I don’t know?

Free dinner, as I decompose.

 

• On Dia de los Muertos, my wife and I received an invitation from a funeral society to a free dinner at a local restaurant to plan for our “final arrangements.”