They fished him out at noon, <br />seagrass was draped and dragged <br />behind, like angel hair, though green, <br />lifelessness all dressed in Sunday suit, <br />the firemen and cops were busy fretting, <br />and filling in the gaps in giant notebooks. <br /> <br />A life was lost again, reasons unknown, <br />the cost to the community was small, <br />the firemen were volunteers, the cops, <br />though on a Sunday here, were all on salary, <br />the spectators, they always come for free, <br />and all his bills, they later learned, had been, <br />the day before, on time and fully paid. <br />He'd sent a payment voucher to the masons, <br />'all granite, with a marble top, indented, <br />for flowers, and the lettering in green', <br />because he had been an environmentalist.<br /><br />Herbert Nehrlich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/checking-out/
