Well Adjusted

I have always held some kind of a job
and hence cannot speak of unemployment
with the depth of first-hand experience.
On a similar note, I find myself
to be an unaddicted, straight, white male
without any deep abiding regrets.
My heart remains relatively intact -
unbroken by past or present lovers,
friends or clandestine unrequited love.
I'm in good physical condition
and exactly the right weight for my height,
with a full head of hair untouched by gray.
I wake up each morning with a smile and
a spring in my step, wanting to kill you.

JeanPaul Jenack has held a variety of jobs, including school teacher, college professor, TV writer/director, choreographer, street juggler, circus performer and freelance writer. For the past 15 years he has worked as Executive Director of the National Circus Project, a non-profit arts organization based in New York. His poetry and other writings have appeared in over 100 books, magazines and journals, and he has received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts for his work as an artist-in-schools. In 1990, he received a congressional commendation for "helping to further the cause of international understanding" through his work (U.S. Congressional Record, 5/23/90). He has poetry currently appearing or forthcoming in print in Alpha Beat Soup, The Best Poems of 1998, blood & feathers, Cicada, Common Threads, Frogpond, Haiku Headlines, Malevolence, Modern Haiku, Piedmont Literary Review, Point Judith Light, Portraits of Life, Reflections and The Wicked, and online in Anthology, Brew-Net, The Bridge, Calliope, Haiku Light, Pogonip, and Word Salad.

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