by Alan David Pritchard

Created on: October 29, 2008

Wearing Your Jumper

They say Jacques found you hanging

from a beam above the staircase banister

and that your tongue was bluer than deep purple

and your skin was quite green.

They say the smell hit them next

and that Jacques nearly collapsed

when your body had to be cut down,

your clumsy dreadful weight uneasily carried away.

Some say your eyes were bulging,

others claim they were closed,

but all agreed the place,

though now quite gloomy,

was immaculate

which says a lot.

You dangled, apparently,

like a pathetic metaphor the desk sergeant

filing the report was admired

for his poetic flair and dark sense of humour.

(Like a lost punctuation mark,

he mused later over visions

of appearing on television)

Some say they will never forget the sight

and to themselves admit that it was actually disgusting

and Jacques had been sick soon afterwards

all over his new boots his brand new boots.

For weeks they spoke of nothing else

at the salon where you used to work.

It is rumoured that Brandon, who found you first,

was inspired a while later to devise a new marketing campaign

for Hang It All Enterprises,

as well as being approached to do the set design

for a rising boy band concert.

He always had a neat way of dealing with death.

The reason, of course, was obvious:

recent ex-boyfriends shuddered

when they heard the news,

which is just as well.

I wish only to know

what you were wearing

the day you died.

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