Pop Pop Requiem
for Armando A. Mendoza, 1939-2018
“You want some fish, you son of a Bisssshh?!” - Armando A. Mendoza, epitaph. I love the dead (Hillwood Cemetery the newer part — tombstones with pictures I love the rituals we carry & nicknames I sign with the dead on our backs a cross for every one) their shiny graves POP POP ! BELOVED ARMANDO with SUNGLASSES & POINTING FINGERS Pop Pop O Pop Pop for you I sign the cross— someone left you flowers, someone left for you a coffee and a banana nut loaf you ordered (someone ordered at 9:09 AM just the day before under your name, Armando, YOU!) & a nip of Chivas 12 (the best! I’ve learned from you) Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop I love you so, weeping in the cemetery & cackling and the dog walker passing confused & concerned POP POP PLEASE it’s been so long the ants & gnats are all over your coffee & your loaf Pop Pop you saint I had a terrible week (really bad!) but Pop Pop YOU SO BELOVED with your fish and your Bisssshh & your family round the table and you, Pop Pop, YOU and yr 78 years! I’ll carry this with you, your grave will NOT be kept clean! (at least by me—will not steal yr Chivas 12!) it will be beautiful, sunglassed YES for you at night when you come outside and toast and toast and toast and toast Pop Pop I love you, Pop Pop you are Missed, Pop Pop I will carry you on my back all the way from one thought to the next and Pop Pop you’ll remain and Pop Pop we’ll all go popopopopopopopopopop Little bubbles billowing out of graveyards & on & on into night & on & on for ages all atop the dark back of life.