She Came Calling

by Verian Thomas

Death arrived in a cardigan with mis-matched buttons,
she put her shopping down and was very grateful
for the cup of tea I made, she sipped, little finger sticking out,
I offered her some cake and she cut it with a little silver scythe.

Death told me not to worry, there was no rush today,
her hairdressing appointment wasn't until two,
I think she was lonely and just wanted to chat
so I talked about the weather and this and that.

Death pulled a pair of half glasses from her handbag
and perched them on the end of her nose,
licked the end of a pencil, crossed off my name
in her little black book and then gave me a look.

She chatted some more, how proud she was of her son
who was off at university getting a good education,
then she told me that my heart had stopped some minutes before
I nodded, then co-operatively sank to the floor.

The Author

Verian Thomas is the editor of Comrades and owner of Comrades Press. He is a writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, a painter, photographer, maker of handmade books amongst other things. His first book, The Key was published by DPress and is distributed by Comrades Press. He also edited the Comrades Poetry Anthology, UNO and had poetry published here and there.