Listen now

and listen well

I don't want
you wearing black

wear purple orange
or red instead -

no big black crawling chariot
holding up traffic

strap me atop a bright
red sports car

in a hand-made box
fashioned from driftwood
adorned with shells and
pebbles
festooned with seaweed
and bits of coral -

my tropical namesakes

No church no hymns
or mournful dirges but

an art gallery perhaps -
the one where I held my
first exhibition

Light My Fire and Purple Haze
Jim and Jimi
they're my boys

your poems not mine -
you know, the one you've
already written - the one about
the real me

then put me in a ceramic pot
one of mine will do

and strap me in an aeroplane,
a seat all to myself

touch down on Meditterranean
soil - I'll leave the choice
to you

as long as it's warm and
on the coast -

treat yourselves to a five-star
hotel - bring on the bubbly

and when you're suitably
pissed - serenade me

with Joni's Blue Blue Here's a
Shell For You as you
throw me to the sea

then hang my paintings from
a lemon tree

feast on olives, cheese
and wine - dance and
be merry

have another drink on me
knowing that I'm home
at last