This is a response to a comment made by @dogtrax on my blog about a post where I am thinking out loud and noodling on “feedback as content” in the composition course I teach.
Relegated.
i am relegated,
as far from my boss as the building allows.
i am relegated,
driving a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
i am relegated
to having my name misspelled by all and sundry
as i drive a couple of hours each day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
i am relegated
to the sub-basement of academe on my campus
as i drive a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
i am relegated
to a precariat mantra of grateful mindful-lessness for being permitted
to work in the sub-basement of academe on my campus
as i drive a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that is as far away from my boss as my building allows.
i am relegated
not to the the house that Jack built, but to the one that I made while life happened
in the sub-basement of academe on my campus
as i drove a couple of hours a day just to get
to the office that was as far away from my boss as my building allowed.
I am just glad that i am relegated and not ‘consigned’,
but, of course, that is the next god-forsaken step.
Then?
Dismissed. Like a class.
Permalink //
yeah. not much I can add to this. except: i read your poem, taking laps on each line, and letting you know i am here and that this particular corner has a sofa and chair, some oversized rubber bands (you gave me years ago), a few comic books, a radio with the baseball game on, some warm beer and fairly decent company most of the time ….
🙂
Kevin
Permalink //
Amen to all that and…a taste of Eddie Pennington: https://youtu.be/eHIC8XYSrVk
Permalink //
I feel that I too am relegated to the far corners of the youth development, education, philanthropy and social justice ecosystem, where my ideas barely find light and few know that I even exist.
I use the word ecosystem they way you might think of all the different departments and layers of administrators, faculty and students within a university, or a traditional public school. A concept map or blueprint would show these different branches. A network analysis would show how much they are disconnected from each other.
When I started leading a tutor/mentor program in the 70’s the ecosystem was limited to the youth, volunteers, parents who were part of the program, and a few corporate staffers who gave support to its operations.
Over time it expanded to include leaders of other tutor/mentor programs who I was learning from while sharing my own experiences.
When that program became a non profit in 1990 the ecosystem expanded to include donors, board members, and a small staff. Since forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 it has expanded to include many more, under the heading of “what are all the things we need to know and do to assure that kids born in poverty today are starting jobs/careers by mid 20’s?”
That’s a big ecosystem. And a big library.
You or I might be an outlier on these maps.
Yet, we are connected in ways many others may not be.