to be a social worker

is to be a surgeon without
tools, the magician paid in
praise, fashioning miracles we regret can’t
be measured.

to be a social worker is to inherit
a system you did not create, the boulder
pinning you to the earth with equal parts
purpose and grief.

to be a social worker is to set the
very table you dream of
flipping. to dress the very
house you hope to burn down.