Job Wanted
by Rich H. Kenney, Jr. MSSW
Children who draw pictures of pipes
Their daddies smoke; teens
With lower-thigh cut marks
Who track your telling eyes;
***
The measured pitch of company VPs
Moonlighting merlot on the side;
The low-burning fire by the man
Gripping a grocery cart;
***
The last one in line for soup -
An unemployed vet who looks
At life as a landmine; the heartsick mom
Of twins with a utility turn-off note;
***
The boy who thinks he’s a girl
But is afraid to tell anyone else;
The Mexican-not-American,
Is afraid someone already knows;
***
Patients without time
Wondering what’s next;
Foster kids without homes
Wondering the very same thing…
***
Rich Kenney
Rich H. Kenney, Jr.
Rich H. Kenney, Jr., MSSW, is Social Work Program Director and Associate Professor at Chadron State College in Chadron, NE. A graduate of the University of Texas with a master’s degree in social work, he received a Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Recent publications include articles in Faculty Focus and poetry in Plainsongs.