On the First Anniversary of My Father’s Death
Please know that you are being
remembered on this day and that
all of us at Simpson Funeral &
Cremation Services are praying
for you, read the text, which jolted
my phone like a defibrillator
shocking a patient. Nice to know,
I thought—lifting it from the night-
stand and cradling it in my hands,
squinting at the sudden brightness—
that thousands of miles away
Paul the embalmer is bowing
his head in remembrance of my loss,
while Barb the cosmetologist
whispers Amen as she layers on
the foundation. That Janet
the grief facilitator is reciting
a Hail Mary, while Betsy the greeter
folds one soft hand in the other.
That Marc the funeral director
is observing a moment of silence,
while Amy the administrative assistant
glances up from her monitor, lifts
her eyes to the portrait of Jesus
in the lobby. And that somewhere
off-site, somewhere set back
in the hills of West Virginia,
in a squat cinderblock building,
underneath a face shield and apron,
a respirator and heavy gloves,
Danny the cremator is humming
the somber refrain of his favorite
childhood hymn.
.
Occupation
It’s a small thing, hardly
worth a mention,
let alone a poem—
but when my father was near the end,
confined to the narrow rails
of a hospital bed,
and we were going over
the finer points
of his soon-to-be published obituary,
like whether he was born
in Beaver or Beaver Falls,
and if his father’s name was Francis
or just plain Frank
(it was Frank),
when we got to work history
and I asked if
Senior Principal Analytical Chemist
was his official job title
(I’d seen it on his business card),
he looked up
from his nutritional shake
and with a frown said,
“Maybe don’t include Senior,
I feel like it makes me sound old.”
© Doug Fritock
Doug Fritock is a writer, husband, and father of four living in Redondo Beach, California. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Rust & Moth, ONE ART, and SoFloPoJo among other literary journals. He was previously a member of Maya C. Popa’s Conscious Writers Collective and has appeared on the Rattle Invited Prompt Lines.
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