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
~