1. Enter the story.
Liked by colleagues,
relied on by family,
already at the outset
the protagonist is dead.
He is propped in a coffin
upstairs and to the right.
2. Paint a picture.
The living revise planned futures
no less, simple, ordinary & terrible
than his had once been in
a life running straight from adventure
& the experiments of youth to a
decorous married middle age
3. Note the details.
With a daughter, a son and one child dead,
A distinguished Public Prosecutor, his
work ambitions increasingly a refuge
as marriage proved difficult but yet demanded
a home and furnishings that safely resembled
those of his circle and the one he aspired to.
4. Make friends with it.
So he and his family lived in comfort
in apparent good health and happy
enough, if never fully satisfied.
Yet, at the margins of satisfaction,
unseen physical distress is growing
& eating away at happiness like a cancer.
5. Drop to a deeper level.
The dreadful taste of death
grew while all about him
life went on as usual.
Feeling as if pushed into a sack
he despaired finally of choices
long since made or evaded.

Prepare yourself.
Is the light good?
Are you seated comfortably?
Is the sound level one
that will allow you to
forget for awhile where you are
and submit to this singular experience?
Banish distraction.

Choose an approach.
Will it be a hearty familiar meal
with maybe a hint of new flavors?
Or, a feast of discovery and surprise?
Something you chew on and savor?
Or, fast food that fills you with empty
calories that you wolf down quickly?
Select carefully.

Commence reading.
Are you skimming the surface,
or plunged into consternation,
wending a complex twisting trail?
Can you trawl the meaning
and bring some value back?
Savor serendipity.