Poetry by jim bourey

               ​Dane CC


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Preface to A Career Change

I had a sharper edge back then    when it was
necessary. Or it seemed so. I specialized in quiet

intensity. Threw in a foaming rage occasionally, 
just to keep it interesting. Things got done.

It was impressive. I could even fire people 
without flinching. That all changed on a Saturday

morning in March as a whole family moved 
their world    to the side of the road 

(weeping mom, stoic dad, two bewildered little girls)
while the sheriff and I executed the definition of eviction.

The sheriff was bored    impatient. 

On that brilliantly clear cold day, I decided
I’d find a kinder way to earn a living.

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jim bourey is an old poet from the northern edge of the Adirondack Mountains in New York. His new collection The Distance Between Us was published by Cold River Press in August 2020. A chapbook, Silence, Interrupted, was published in 2015 by The Broadkill River Press. His work has also appeared in Gargoyle, Broadkill Review, Mojave River Review, Rye Whiskey Review and many other journals and anthologies in print and online. In 2012 and 2014 he was Runner-up for First Place in the Faulkner-Wisdom Poetry Competition. He can often be found reading aloud in dimly lit rooms.

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