Reaper™

David Barber

Oh, you know, you carry on as best you can.

Some would offer payment for such conversations,

and snap pictures of coffins at the graveside.

It seemed our Visitors forgot old beginnings

now that their flesh renewed itself endlessly

by clever tricks of the science we envy so much.

Soon it was rumoured that they’d asked to see

the moment when the hiss and thump of life support

was turned off, though they’d expected more

than just the settled stillness of a body,

the flatline, and a silence afterwards.

Not a body, we explained, a coma patient.

Mostly, loved ones squeeze the hand of the dying

as if to stop them slipping through their fingers.

We saw them savouring our words like fine wine.

These days they pay top dollar to watch a death,

live as it happens. Special rates for executions.

Also euthanasia, for the connoisseur.   

The End