artwork: ralph murre
Returning
to Work
by
Donal Mahoney
After
the others had welcomed him back,
had
shaken his hand and returned to their desks,
another
as ancient pulled over his chair
to
inquire of him who six months before
had
been taken away
on
a pallet of interlocked arms
and
parallel faces:
“What
happened that day?
No
one would say.”
Both
men talked softly,
held
cigarette rites:
the
delights of the tapping,
the
lighting, the stubbing,
the
one man explaining,
the
other one listening,
both
of them knowing
a
matter of months.
~
first published in Cinquefoil
