The Captured Angel Comments on Death
       

It's a great invention.
People are a lot nicer
when they're dead.
They don't get impatient
waiting in line at the license bureau.
They don't turn red
and flip you the finger
in traffic and they don't tear
pages out of magazines in
waiting rooms.
They don't fart in elevators or
fake orgasms.
You can say whatever you want
and they won't fire back a sarcastic remark;
in fact, they are great listeners
and will not squirm or rush you
through the boring account
of your day. They don't invent
interrogation devices to electrocute
your genitals. They don't place X's
on a map where bombs will be dropped.
They don't make speeches sprinkled
with promises they'll never keep.
They are much like old furniture
sitting silently, unthreatening,
docile, stored in an attic—
or like an imaginary friend from
childhood you could tell
anything to and boss around.
And best of all about the dead
is you don't have to wonder
if they really love you or are being dutiful
or if they still think sadly
about that time after the spat
when you said
you wished they were dead.

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Copyright © 2016 Neil Carpathios All rights reserved
from Confessions of a Captured Angel
Terrapin Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission