Jennifer Houston, Picture Day
Jennifer Houston, Picture Day
$40.25
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.