Elegy for My Father; Who Is Not Dead

"One day I'll lift the telephone and be told my father's dead."

This poem is a bit ironic in the sense that the speaker is saying an elegy for their father who is not even dead yet- a point he addresses in the title. Every elegy I have come across is about someone who has passed away. To the speaker, they already see their father as being dead because he has accepted death, "I think he wants to go, a little bit- a new desire to travel building up, an itch to see fresh world. or older ones."

Another obvious literary device I saw was the use of an elegy. (I really had to dig deep for that one...) Usually, when I read these sort of things, the speaker or writer is often praising the person they are speaking/writing about. However, the speaker in this is almost criticizing their father for being ready to pass away. The speaker looks at this as the final step before they have to meet death themselves.