Maggie Rainey-Smith
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Quite an Assistant (The Coroner's Report)
It says:
your pulmonary arteries
contained bright pink blood
but your lungs were normal
apart from their colouration
(I can never forget
the blue of you in the coffin)
it says:
your stomach was sent
unopened to the DSIR
and your heart,
the part we miss most
weighed 400 grams
It tells us
you were a physically
healthy young man
but as you are dead
this is no consolation
the dregs in the cup
they found beside you
were sent for analysis
with a control sample
the report speaks
of a deforming scar
on your right cheek
(that’s going too far,
it was only acne)
the post-mortem concludes
this was a deliberate action
which gives us no satisfaction
because we’d rather know why
you chose this time to die
did you hesitate at all
was there regret at the
moment your lips met
the deadly wet cyanide
did you think of us?
no health and safety
rules were broken
at the factory, the
report tells us
you had your own key
they summoned your
wife as a witness, and
after being duly sworn
it is recorded
she said
We were happily married
and he was always
planning for the future ...
and something else too
that threw me when I
read it, because I never
imagined
he was quite an assistant
around the home.
