Howard Firkin
When other people die, I try to hide
the tee hee hee not me, not yet, and set
my face to 7. Serious Regret,
(I’d dial it higher if a loved one died)
and hunker down to wait the weeping out.
No doubt this coldness makes me seem extreme
in my self-centred beingness, but I’ve
observed a truth: they’re dead and I’m alive;
so, too bad, deadies! Life may be a dream
but you’re not in it, whatever it’s about.
So tell me that I’m cold and unforgiving.
I’m not a man of whom it will be said,
"He left the world the better for his living."
I’ll leave the world the way we all will—dead.
the tee hee hee not me, not yet, and set
my face to 7. Serious Regret,
(I’d dial it higher if a loved one died)
and hunker down to wait the weeping out.
No doubt this coldness makes me seem extreme
in my self-centred beingness, but I’ve
observed a truth: they’re dead and I’m alive;
so, too bad, deadies! Life may be a dream
but you’re not in it, whatever it’s about.
So tell me that I’m cold and unforgiving.
I’m not a man of whom it will be said,
"He left the world the better for his living."
I’ll leave the world the way we all will—dead.