Hand cut collage, 8.5” x 11”, Framed

Work Conditions

By Zachary Wardell

Percussion caroms into the classroom.

Students’ sparse attention spans 

the disruption. Half alive, I lecture 

and dissociate.

Jackhammers pound, screws whine,

exposing skeletal remains

in the campus construction zone.

Gunfire cadence sustains.

I scramble to recover a lesson plan.

A generation removed from boomer 

duck and cover, now active shooter 

drills rehearse the horror.

Bullet points on PowerPoint detail

how we must fight, hide, or run. 

I return to the soles of my shoes

splattered with paint, or maybe blood.

Down the stairs contractors

spread out the floor plan.

Dust settles on the plastic tarps.

My chalk line falters.