Absent - Poetry

by Rich H. Kenney, Jr., MSSW

No sign of him now for three weeks – him,

being Carlos, a thought-to-be Mexican-American

with perfect attendance in the social work program,

a senior about to graduate with a four-point-o.

Twenty-five, six feet, with a good-natured grin

and milky-colored eyes, broken since birth.

Sturdy in thought and well-earned opinion, he holds

his own in debates about borders and citizenship,

knows first-hand the sucker punch of social injustice.

A lover of goalball - bell ball soccer for people

without sight who play by ear. A purist who

arrives early, before each game, to hand sweep

the floor for game-changing flaws like warped boards

and dings in the wood. “It’s good to know ahead of time

where the surface cracks are. They’re makers or breakers.”

Evening tracker of the turtle he lets roam free all day long

in his living room, a way to ride out time, his loneliness.

Partaker of rallies that fight for the homeless - usually

marches without his cane, rings arms, instead, with strangers.

Tuner of pianos who appreciates the science of vibration,

the tightening and loosening of strings as taught by his father

to whom he mails what little he has left after tuition.

Had little to say his last day in class about walls and wedges,

the people coming and going, killing and caring.

Rich H. Kenney, Jr., 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.