A Dead Man

The Maid

Amelia Brown had actually been hired twice

Her first employer had no face nor a name for as long as she had known him

She called him Mr. Smoky because of the cigarette smoke 

That singled him out,

They usually met in the Catholic church in the confessional,

He would tell her

Her tasks, and tell her the price and she would do it

Never thinking to ask if she had a choice

Her second employer 

Was Oliver Ranhook, and he actually had face

Maybe that was why she liked him so much

But she had a job to do

After all, she had loyalty to Mr. Smoky before she had any to Oliver

Mr. Smoky was like a father to her

An indiscreet,

Only met once a month,

Second-hand smoke in you face,

Kind of way

She knew objectively speaking, 

She had an actual family out there somewhere, 

But they weren’t waiting for her

So she wasn’t waiting for them

She had a life to live

But sometimes she had to ask herself if this was really…

What she wanted to do with herself,

Waste away doing the dirty work for other people

Sometimes she wondered if there was anything out there for her

A type of security other than a man in a confessional

Smoking cigarettes

Sometimes she would sit by the pond hidden in the trees

And wonder what would happen if she just screamed 

Just screamed what she was really doing there

Screamed until her lungs gave out, because her jobs

Landed her with a lump, a cancerous lump in her chest

Filled with anxiety and fog and uncertainty of what will become of her

And sometimes she feels like it will just disappear

If she just screamed and got it over with

But then she knows that she will be abandoned 

And she will rot with the rats

She didn’t like rats

And by the pond, she let the serene silence as she imagines 

Taking all her worries in the form of a bug, and a giant one

And drowning it in the water beneath until the bubbles slowly

S L O W L Y 

Come to a stop… and gone

But today Olive was here

She thought of leaving and pretending she didn’t see a thing

But that would bring up questions

And that would be more suspicious, 

And she didn’t know Olive came here too,

Why lie, when being genuine makes better company