I brought my grief to work today

I brought my grief to work today
because there was no one to watch him at home.
So I gave him a chair,
right next to my desk,
though mostly he wanted to sit in my lap.

At the morning meeting,
he hid under the table
while we shared our reports.
And my supervisors asked me,
“Can you get those in by Monday?”

“Not an imposition,”
I responded,
while my grief bit my knuckles
just out of sight

Around 3 my grief got bored
with sitting in the office
and I had to take him outside
before he threw a tantrum

The falling snow fascinated him
as we walked around the block.
“Can we work out here today?”
my grief asked, mesmerized.
“It’s too cold,”
I explained patiently,
“We’d freeze
into little ice sculptures.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,”
my grief said.

At 5 o clock I started to pack my things
and my grief grew anxious
“I don’t want to leave yet,”
he whined,
“Don’t we have more work to do?”
And I did. So we stayed
until my grief started to get sleepy.
“Can we do this again tomorrow?”
he asked, eyes drooping.

“Yes. I suppose we will.”