My Father's Death

My dad has told me three times that I can recall-

he said, “I am statistically likely to die in a car accident.”

Which I mean, is true in a way…

but he is also statistically likely to die from cigarettes.

He’s been smoking them for years,

but he says they don’t change a thing.

He could also die from those energy drinks. They are newly

raking up a death toll. Soon they will have warnings on the cans

like cigarettes and drunk driving.

 

He could fall off a ladder, and die that way too.

Even without a ladder, he could fall off a building or a billboard.

My dad could die in a big city full of crime.

They took his tools, his jacket… but why not his life?

A dog could kill him in a big city too! Or any dog, really.

He could get food poisoning from somewhere between Los Angeles

and Detroit… even further South somewhere in Georgia.

Momma's food never killed you, and he never had to worry.

 

Mexico is always an option. People die in Mexico.

People die in my city, too.

They die in grocery stores, in the parking lots…

and in car accidents on the way home.

People have heart attacks at the dinner table.

Others die peacefully in their sleep.

Sometimes they die in another’s arms,

in their homes, in their beds.

 

Turn the car around.

Hang up the phone unless you’ll call me or Mom.

Let us love you while you’re here

instead of hugging the steering wheel with your hands.

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