miss more than you

One day in the not so distant future,

on a day that feels normal to most people,

filled with getting the kids ready for school,

and performing their menial tasks

and/or more important jobs,

like saving lives, or doing someones taxes, or educating children-

one of your friends will open Facebook

and see that another friend of yours,

someone closer to you

with more vivid memories

and shared experiences,

with maybe even something that resembles love

will have alerted the world that you have passed.

This news will pass through timezones,

and be represented by a faded grainy photo of you-

perhaps from high school graduation,

or some other distant event when you were young

and happy and alive.

Different people on Facebook

will react in different ways.

Your friend’s post,

the one announcing your death,

will garner a batch of sad emojis,

as people scroll through their feed-

The announcement of your death

with accompanying photo will be

just another news bit they will process

for a few seconds,

before they change their sadness

to joy while watching a kitten video

or to rage as they contemplate

the death of democracy

or ponder the news about the EPA

choosing not to protect children from poison.

A few people on their feed,

might work hard to remember any times they spent with you,

conjuring memories from the shrinking spaces of their minds.

Others will leave comments about how great you were.

How you were so kind and loved.

People that barely knew you might jump on

and revel in the shared grief.

Some of your real friends might remember

that these emotional interlopers

were actually pretty big assholes toward you,

but they will like the comments

because this is the time to grieve

and not to hold grudges or

lingering vendettas.

By lunch time,

most people will have forgotten about you

and the announcement of your death.

They will have to get home and make dinner,

and go over their kid’s homework.

If you’re lucky they might think of you

one last time through the fog of fatigue

and feel obliged to honour your life,

or the absurdity of our modern age,

in the form of a poem,

before they get ready to go have a drink and some dinner

with a friend who will move away soon,

who they will most likely miss more than you.