so there i was, 
bothering no one,
living my day quietly,
when all of a sudden,
and for no good reason,
my father’s letter showed up
and, a week later,
he was dead.
i mean, really!
who does that to their kid
even if their kid
is a grown-up person?
but at least
i got to go and say goodbye;
my mom keeled over
in the checkout line
of the grocery story.
(ha ha, she checked out.)
and so it goes,
as another dead person
was fond of saying.