Two people dying I assumed with no more preparedness
than I, recently and by accident said how they’d like to go.
For each a party and for one, people wearing balloons

Come with me to buy a linden tree, stopping first
at the bank, for I need a loan to buy a linden tree.

I took this from him and won’t give it back, the idea
that paths in the woods, paths worn or chopped,
that in their coming and going, how they’re revealed

Looking at the picture used in the obituary,
I’d peg your Pops as a secret admirer
of Ferraris, too smart to own one but the red dream

I can hear him not wanting to die with fiberoptic
clarity. The gun in his lap has other
thoughts but won't get on the phone. This