Multiconstruct

This poem I wrote when i was doing home based social work with families with child abuse and neglect. It was either laugh or cry and there is a lot of dark humor in that line of work but it was always done with love. Unfortunately everything in this piece is true and is written as advice should you ever have a social worker coming by, a little Emily Post, for a pretty awkward situation.

You ask them twenty questions,

Then give three pieces of advice

If they do one praise them for it,

If not you tell them twice

Do you keep an eye on your kids,

When their running near the street?

Why in the hell do you have a satellite dish,

When your house ain’t got no heat?

Why do you and the kids always fight?

Why can’t you just get along?

Why should your teenager try to behave,

When you tell him everything he does is wrong?

These aren’t easy questions

And I ask them for low pay,

But my first piece of advice is,

‘Tomorrow will be a brighter day’

So please don’t beat your kids

In front of the social worker

Put away your weed tray,

Don’t offer me a beer

Clean up all the dog shit,

And wash your children’s faces

Don’t call your wife a stupid whore,

Because the social worker’s here.

So I listen to the stories

Of strife and horror and pain

Validate the struggle

Reach for words to explain

That the system is defective

Family is breaking down

Their ain’t no village to raise a child

And mentors are hard to be found

Nuclear families can sure melt down

As we struggle through this world alone

But I’ll kiss a bureaucrat’s ass

To get your heat turned on

And you can always call me on the phone,

So please don’t beat your kids,

In front of the social worker.