A Future Obituary

the raw candor of Joan Didion’s essays, 
the irritating emotional exhibitionism of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Bell Jar’ 
and the wry, dark humor of a Bob Dylan song...

Ryan was an asshole,
but...

a voracious poet,
filled with selfish hope...

a talker, a drunkard,
a hopeless romantic...

passionate and funny,
lazy and lovable...

his ashes will be scattered 
in a few cities, in a bunch of books,
and snorted by four friends
to be determined by a game of pickup basketball,
the winners getting some money
and/or framed preserved tattoos.