Would be volunteers
hold up hands in sign of cross
back away as the numbers
roll in across TV screens
in tiny print inside pages daily rag
Powers-that-be are concerned
seeking bodies to hold the line
have foothold in shifting sands.
History born in bloodspill
Cain to today
did god look away
jiggling dice in hand?
Are the suits bemused
the not-quite on the up and up
elected officials?
Would be volunteers
out of work classified
columns shrink each day
thinking most any employment better
than this scrabbling for temp and odd jobs
now turn away from jobs to die for
Eve Rifkah is the co-founder and artistic director of Poetry Oasis, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit poetry organization and editor of Diner: a journal of poetry. Poems and/or essays have appeared in The MacGuffin, 5 AM, Chaffin Journal, Porcupine Press, The Worcester Review, California Quarterly, ReDactions, Jabberwock Review, Southern New Hampshire Literary Journal and translated into Braille. Her chapbook At the Leprosarium won the 2003 Revelever chapbook contest. She received her MFA in Writing from Vermont College and lives with her husband, poet Michael Milligan.