Relentlessly cheerful
she worked 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
and called everybody dear
the type of office manager every workplace needs.
Invoice?
Pay slips?
Sick leave?
Bereavement entitlement?
“Paid. Here. One week per year of employment. Three days.”
Quick. Definitive. Unequivocal.
Solutions with a smile
even at lunchtime – if urgent.
I was sure we had paid it
so was she.
Vanished.
“One place it might be
try the third drawer down”
I did.
It was
with a fortnight’s timesheet – hers
filled in for 80 hours.
Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry 