Improved Initiative Status Report

(after Robert Kelly)

When I say initiative, I mean shaking hands. When I say shaking hands, I mean expanded outreach. When I say expanded outreach, I mean I need four seven stitches. When I say stitches, I mean tracking system. When I say tracking system, I mean landscape. When I say landscape, I mean greater oversight. When I say oversight, I mean your coat’s worn thin. When I say worn thin, I mean new administrator. When I say administrator, I mean scapegoat. When I say scapegoat, I mean heads on fire. When I say on fire, I mean transitioning. When I say transitioning, I mean enrollment diversity. When I say diversity, I hear accounting program. Correction: I mean accountability. When I say accountability, I mean who drank the gin, and when I say gin, I mean going out. Match over. I mean, strategically speaking, sunk your boat.









Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of three collections of poems, most recently Burning of the Three Fires (BOA Editions, 2010), which was a finalist for the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award; Curious Conduct (BOA, 2004); and Placebo Effects (Norton, 1997). She teaches in the Stonecoast low-residency MFA Program and at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in New York, where she lives.
(Photo courtesy of Bibiana Huang Matheis)