the dead want to friend you on LinkedIn
identical greetings through grinning teeth
you got a job they no longer need?

you will wish them happy birthday
on Facebook when they’re dead
if no one told you of their passing

ten years after their funerals, they’ll pop
up again, happy as ever, lined up in rows
on Facebook along with your ex-lovers
and the shitty boss you were glad to be rid of,
a grotesque unexpected ghost gathering

and you’ll want to friend them back
for that split second before you remember
they’re dead—and more so in the hollow pause after