Inspired by All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell.

(After All the Living and the Dead)

There is the one who masks

the face after death,

bundled and sheathed, one last costume party.

It is hard to think of one who cuts

for death to bring life, to poke

about for organs and eyeballs red rosy and sweating.

The one that is digging,

not quite as deep as you’d think,

wayward treasures: wormy

whale’s tooth, a whistle, whiskey, cigarettes.

Then there are those that investigate, execute and embalm,

their trinkets and gadgets, the tools of the trade,

a small prayer, some clean gloves, giving numbers not names.