Where to Start

winter can be long
when you are looking for a job
and all the applications are submitted
online at McDonald’s
and you never ever hear anything back

the guy across the aisle
lost his apartment though
he sleeps at the salvation army
but has to go out into the cold world
during the day
he’s waiting on four o’clock
and shelter

i’m waiting on my kids
to remember to come and get me
I’ve not been without wheels of my own
since i was their age
i’m counting it a lesson
in humility
or patience

the man in the interview this morning
asked if i wasn’t overqualified
for the position
and i smiled
work is work
and i need a job

winter is cold
and i am tired
of being without

By Emily Burns 

Biography:

Emily Burns is a student of history, spending much of her spare time sewing her family’s wardrobe of 18th and 19th century clothes. She volunteers at several historic sites around her home in central Kentucky; teaching about women’s skills of the past. Emily has been reading poetry since the age of twelve and began exploring voice and writing about ten years ago.

Emily holds a B.A. in English from the University of Kentucky and has published several books. Dalliance, poetry with images in words that describe the hills, the countryside, the flora and fauna and the heart of a Kentucky poet, which was published by Old Seventy Creek Press in 2010. She edited and published John Sternemann’s posthumous anthology Banging a Drum: words from sacred spaces in 2014.

Historic publications include, The Children’s Civil War Alphabet Book, an abcedarian book that includes photos and stories from her living history adventures with her own kids. Emily also published Our Receipts: a Civil War cookbook, which includes various recipes from the mid-19th century, including a variety of main dishes and dessert as used in Civil War reenactments. Tea and Manners, a compilation of articles describing fashion, etiquette and recipes for a 19th century tea. And finally, What a Lady Should Know about Health and Medicine in the mid-19th Century, which is a compilation of articles from period sources including recipes for common cures from the pre-Civil War era.