Goth Reaper
I imagine retirement
Not as a grim reaper
But as a goth girl
Or they/them
No scythe but
Keep the graduation
Gown, hood and
Skeleton feet
Since world wars brought
Us machine harvest
I can’t count
On the individual
Attention of a
Halloween haunt
When my term is up
My retirement is
Not personal
I’m paid too much
The school
Can replace me
With a younger
Underpaid teacher
Will I follow
Them from class
To class the dead
After the dying
A spy of time
In the doorway
Watching the
Waiting wait
–Ticky Kennedy
Reclusive Poet in Residence
SchoolNewsToday.com
NOTE
Across the country, tenured faculty are being replaced by cheaper part-time adjuncts when they retire.
Also Read: Old Timer’s Disease: Friday Office Poem