*

Any veteran human service worker has seen this before, ( I can say this because I have worked in Human Services in one capacity or another since 1978)— this scenario, this kid, in clinics, hospitals, at colleges, etc… across the country.

Social workers

Tall skinny kid, twenty-four, two beers,
sober white girlfriend sitting beside him.
I’m sewing his eyebrow, didn’t ask
why he was skateboarding at 3 AM.

Do you like your job?he asks.
Huh? Sure,I say.

He talks as I inject the lidocaine,
clean, explore, suture, as if
he were getting a haircut.

No, I’m serious. Do you really like it?
Well, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s busy.

You’re not listening, man, are you passionate?
When you wake up in the morning this is all
you want to do, most important thing in the world?

His girlfriend groans, Leave the doctor alone.

— Ken Soyow

*Dr. Ken Soyow is the pen-name of a physician who practiced part-time in Somerville ten years ago. He now lives on Cape Cod. Characters and events are fictional.

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