Your Job That Will Be Erased By Chad Parenteau

Every day, for hours, for miles,

there is reassurance that this 

position--criminal in the eyes

of your apprentice, who never

takes up your mantle—this job

is politically correct, is God’s 

will, is what your father would

have wanted, is what your partner 

would rather have you do, is 

society working well, is whatever

you need to hear so you continue.

So God drags you on, and society

drags you on, and man drags you

on, and man drags you on, until

someone says just stop, and your

never-ending mission just ends. 

And what are you still doing here?

Chad Parenteau hosts Boston’s long-running Stone Soup Poetry series. His work has appeared in journals such as Résonancee, Molecule, Ibbetson Street, Pocket Lint, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, Off The Coast, The Skinny Poetry Journal, The New Verse News, dadakuku, Nixes Mate Review and The Ugly Monster. He has also been published in anthologies such as French Connections, Sounds of Wind, Reimagine America, and The Vagabond Lunar Collection. His newest collections are All's Well Isn't You and Cant Republic: Erasures and Blackouts. He serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Oddball Magazine and co-organizer of the annual Boston Poetry Marathon. He lives and works in Boston.