30in30, Day 18: "Ferryman"

The driver            of the hearse      smokes a cigarette

and looks out the window at the empty street.

He doesn't           give a shit            anymore.

It's hard to sustain caring,

when you make                your living           from dying

in a town of 8000.

Too few degrees              of separation.

He thinks how he'd have asked off work,

if he cared

'coz        he knows the guy             or knew him.

And same last week.

He could              he supposes        sit in the church

and hear the Mass,

but the priest has a lisp                  and it makes him laugh

and the families                look sideways at him.

And so does everyone else,

because he's the guy       with the bodies in back.

Everyone pays the ferryman,

but         no one                 cares for him.

T.A.B. 4-18-13