Poetry Month - Death does not carry a Smartphone

Death Does Not Carry a Smartphone - 2011

Steve Jobs’ obituary

was in the paper today.

They called him “A genius;

cut-down before his time,”

(As if one could remonstrate

to Death’s beckoning,

“Not now, it isn’t my time!”)

Perhaps it was karma:        

That final deserved disconnection,

just retribution for the ruination

of human conversation.

But no one at the table

was listening, instead

squinting into their iPhones

reading tiny text messages

about nothing.