Category: Death

It was the venue where women
debuted their second best outfits
not the clothes worn at weddings
or the formal balls declining in number and importance
but not yet extinct.
Sunday mass.
Hats, gloves, unladdered stockings and expensive new outfits.
Thou shalt not covet.

By Beatitudes the meek shall inherit the earth
possibly compensation
in the 1960’s provincial city they were owed.
Status quotient
white plus wife plus wealth minus questioning
equalled ideal.- hierarchal peak
except for priests.

In a single channelled five hour per day television country
religion filled space between sport and work.
Priests, conducting services deciphering scripture
partly explanation partly myth enhancement
On Sundays as the congregation emptied into the vestry
many of the faithful contrived opportunity
to be seen engaging conversation
or issue invitation.

A priest for a dinner guest
that was a boast to neighbours before and after.
To be arranged with the parish head
a cleric who had held the title a good many years
a wily old sheepdog
who knew proximity diminished exclusivity
inaccessibility maintained prestige.
Most were declined.

Perhaps it was saturation television or travel
at some point in the 1970s
the aura dissolved .
Nowadays they skip between services
open shirted
casual trousered.
The priest as celebrity
like the Kennedy’s,
The Beatles,
Martin Luther King
did not survive the 1960’s.

Kath seemed young for someone thought old
45 is – to an early 30’s male.
She cold called looking for work
then confessed knowledge of impending vacancy
laughing, “you have to be in to win”
then serious, her CV could vouchsafe hard work
then convincing – she wouldn’t let me down.

In over a decade of selecting staff
she was the best hiring made
unrelenting in cheer and effort
the highest standards, work and personal
praise was held at a sensible distance
“this is so is so much better than most places I’ve worked
people here don’t know when they’re well off.”

She seemed to understand the burdens of a boss
becoming
that most useful workplace accessory
an ear which listens – then deletes
where confidential goes, between paper and shredder.

A fellow employee in hardscrabble circumstances
became pregnant
by choice
a planned addition to her family.
Reservation spoke to Kath about the wisdom
pondering the prudence of straining already scarce funds.

By formal mathematics all entities can be valued and ranked
by popular sociology judgement is a greater sin than indiscretion
which is greater than gossip.
Frost : such a reliable informant
directly or indirectly the woman with child knows
never again speaking to me unless unavoidable
shrunk, razor wire phrases.
Trust, a diamond much time in formation
destroyed forever by careless cutting.

The classroom has another life at night.
Fire and dreams
hope, a clandestinely ignored lover by day
takes an unselfconscious seat.

Writing as with cooking
everybody thinks they can
know they have a magical creation within.

Feeding the need
stroking malignant ego
addicting the habit
taking the money
it’s what she does.

A writer teaching writing
who doesn’t any more
praising work that should be binned
soothing re-enrolment into the next class
bringing in the fees
a smile to the accountants
and another contract.

Complacent and torpid
It’s easy money
promising dreams
long after her own have died.