DELETING THE DEAD FROM FACEBOOK

DELETING THE DEAD FROM FACEBOOK

I can't bring myself to delete 

the accounts of dead in Facebook.
I still have Kathleene West's page. 

She sold me her cellphone for dirtcheap 

right before she committed suicide, 

and it was haunting to find her photos 

on the memory card after she had gone...
Jane Elsdon and Ann Menebroker 

are up to something, I know it...
I can hear Steve Kowit laughing 

maniacally in the other room.
Juanita Musson's cooking 

up a great feast in a washpan.
Speaking of Old Sausalito, 

Brite Bonnier's still painting somewhere.
And what about Pagan Neil?
Tom Hayden's dusting off his book, 

saying Poets don't pay. Ever.
And Norton Buffalo sometimes still visits 

from beyond the earthly Paradise, 

via fan photos. He fills the page.
Chris Caswell's ghost harp 

still plays in the wind.
Whitman McGowan's just stepped out 

of the room for a moment. Perhaps for a pint.

So many gone, so little time left.
No, I can't delete them. No, no, not yet.

12/6/2016

Oakland

Michael Rothenberg (100Thousand Poets for Change) wrote that he was deleting dead friends on his Facebook page. My reply to him was a poem of sorts.