38 Nekroun

Not just a job, a career.
A calling et raison d’etre.
An expression of zanshin
and esprit de corps.
For now and forever…
fin de temps.

I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.

That’s the way it works,
the cheap trick, and why
it works, as a calling.
I’m on a call, each day
and every night, 24/7 365
with time off for Lent
and good digestion.

Nex quondam.
Nex futurus.

“What do you say when death comes calling?”

“Wrong number!”

Death never comes of her own volition,
she comes when she is called; supplicant,
appreciative, to do as she was trained;
to carry you across to the other side,
bringing peace and surcease, and
take her token fee.

and wait in satiated slumber for the next assignment.
This thankless, lonely job, when observed from a distance:
a terror, a horror, an excrescence, turning your bowels to water
in dread anticipation and expectation of a visitation.

This little job of mine.
Everything’s going to be just fine.

Oops, crossed signals. Missed calls, and wrong numbers;
hazards of the job. Apologies and quick retreats,
all that can be offered, but I’ll be back…
when the time is right.
[Nekroun – v. to make dead; Nex is I hope a noun meaning death]