Frank Prem

Franks Psychiatry, 2 #28: getting stuffed

a man has died

 

I am learning
that it is nurses work
to prepare the body

 

I understand
sponging down

 

and ticketing a label
to a toe

 

I can make sense
of the slack body

 

the difference
that absence of life
makes

 

and I realise the point
of inserting wadding
into loosened orifices

 

but I cannot comprehend
the rage
of the Senior Nurse
as she manipulates
the gauze with tongs

 

and there are no explanations
in my texts
to account for her need
to apply such a vicious
final insertion

 

~