Advice to My Widow Following My Fatal Kayak Accident

[Tracy Mitchell]

~

Advice to My Widow Following My Fatal Kayak Accident

Wipe my hard drive and burn my papers.

Take the chlorine, muriatic acid
and other pool chemicals in the garden shed
to Enviro-Services for disposal – hire yourself a pool boy.

Take my clothes to the Thrift Store
from whence they came.

Take the best offer for the Studebaker
and put the proceeds into Uber credit
– you only have to drive when you want to.

Sign up for Hello Fresh.

And when some puff-cloud afternoon you look toward
the mountains, your gaze lingers and curiosity
gets the best of you

climb the ladder in my shop to the shelf above the rafters.
If there remains in a DeWalt zipper bag
four bundles of cash and my passport
then you know for sure.


~

[Colm Roe]

Sounds like a life I'd like to have lived.
And the lightness here is a tonic.
Thanks for posting 

[Matty11]

Highly entertaining T., but real. The title is a grabber and the poem delivers.

muchly enjoyed

Phil

[Dave]

Love the title and love the poem except for one little phrase: If there remains - this seems too convoluted for me and rather Yodaish even if I detect you needed it to get the emphasis onto what comes after.
As has been said a great title and good delivery. A fun read with sharp tang.
Dave

[Tracy Mitchell]

Colm, Phil, Dave -- thanks for the kind comments, this was a fun poem to write. Sometimes advice poems pretty much write themselves.

Cheers.

T

[indar]

Geez Tracy, why didn't you include a business card from a real estate agent in Costa Rico in the N's escape bag while you were at it? Nice guy.

[Tracy Mitchell]

Geez Linda -- it is the Narrator, not me! And in any event, the bag is still there.

Real good to have you back.

T

[indar]

I know how those darned narrators can sometimes get the bit in their teeth and run wild leaving the poor person at the keyboard shocked, shocked---

[Tracy Mitchell]

Yes, yes - that's it.

[Qwerty]

Despite the heavy nature of the accident, your poem was light and therefore fun to read. I especially appreciated the discussion of differentiating the poet and the persona, or as you folks say, the N. More than a few times, one or more of my friends will assume that the persona is me. It ain't necessarily so!