Policy

[tomoffing]

When an employee asks about bereavement
removing the splintered wedge under the door
and sitting before the computer stands by

the radio puts down its saxophone for the news.
A family member has died. She is I can't find anyway to justify this enjambment.
hoping to travel back a few days

to settle the house and service.
When an employee asks about bereavement,
the foreigner with a familiar face,

it sends the mind bumbling down cobble stones both visually and sonically this is excellent, however the clumsy/awkward connotations of bumbling conflict slightly with the clarity of image you go on to create. That said, I cant think of an alternative right now.
since paved over, to a church;
lifting a casket, handles gnawing

grooves into a younger palm,
surrendering the shuttered shell
to the arms of a hearse beautiful funeral description

before returning to the question.
When an employee asks about bereavement,
the first response is this breath of memory,

inhaled and quiet like a candle
spent after the hum of a heater is heard
again within a waking house.

Then a manual is grabbed from a top shelf
and a distant page is found, already
sterilized and prepared to be shared.

Excellent piece Geoff. The parallels drawn between the imagery and the experience of loss are subtle and profound.

In particular,

"removing the splintered wedge under the door"
it wasn't until second reading, that I grasped this as the first opening of memory.
"the foreigner with a familiar face"
A great personification of bereavement while also expanding on the employee's character.

The sterilized manual as a blueprint for the act of consolation.

thanks for a truly enjoyable piece.