Legends

In the workplace
some live on
even when long gone.
Forever remembered
for humour
for proficiency
for single-mindedness.

Love and respect are not enough
the immortal must frighten as well
known without ever being met
stories diffuse through the workplace ether.
Present and absent. Living ghosts.

She had already been archived
before I was catalogued
the same periodical
different sections. Separate editions
one unread
the other
thumb stained reference.

One afternoon a solemn exodus – a funeral
it is hers.
Respect sighs through the corridors
they don’t make them like that any more
“lucky she wasn’t here when…”

While the hierarchy is absent
a new story
not recycled or framed.

Drinking + driving + dark = death
a man on a bike.
raining apparently
“poorly lit probably
she didn’t mean to
wrong place, wrong time
something that could happen to anybody.”
It is never mentioned again.