Fare-minded

The faithful departed
gone
gone to another workplace
absent, but present
memory skipping beatification to sainthood.

“Pam, ” : how my teeth came to clench,
everytime –
“Pam used to …”
“What Pam did….”
“When Pam…..”

She called in once
on her way south to a school reunion
looked around the kitchen
like God popping in on Earth
checking the tenant wasn’t wrecking the place,
polite, but just out of earshot
I could hear : not in my day.

….. Fiona, Second Cook
ferociously competent,
sternly sensible
soundbite brief – “ something wrong?”
I told her –
constant reference
constant comparison
constant eulogy.
No preamble. No appendix.
No sugar. No fat.
“The food was pretty basic when she was here
it’s much more professional now.”