The Appeal

You have been wiggled

You’ve been sifted                                          cleaned out and weighed

Each grain examined                                      you were found wanting

Your feet too shuffling                                   your teeth too evolved

Slow rip and hide                                             under your mantle

Poked and shushed over                               tut-tut rejected.

 

Meant to be read each column separately but also across the two columns. Very much unlike those who are unable to think outside the box.

 

The Candidate

On the next page the ink turns green

Fresh shoots, new hope, all that palaver

You examine the manuscript under a loop of magnified manifold

You process pleasure in Powerpoint bullets

Tarnish templates with monotype ghosting

It’s all done with robots now but you like to muck in

No parchment too precious for fingers to wander

You meter their words, box in statements of intent.

There is such a thing as perfect length or outstaying welcomes

There is no such thing as the perfect applicant.

 

Next Time You Apply, Bring Your Weapons

The next time you pin out your life on paper

in butterfly sprawl –  for all to finger and paw…

tread cautiously upon the buzzwords,

prepare courteously for the skewer.

 

Next time they ignore or reject you,

call you Mr. Annie if they remember your name,

when they boast of hundreds of outstanding applications…

feel the low tide of stand-in, a has-been, intently dim.

 

Next time they invite you to look in their eyes,

bring out the weapons, the fake and the true.

Though barbs pierce you dearly and scar tissues tighten

to scour your heart, build up bile, rot and decay.

Though you long to cauterise wounds in sheer lava,

As layer by layer they strip you of pride, esteem and hope.

 

Next time…

Curse them softly.

But don’t melt to brine.

Don’t  let them define you.

Don’t you dare fall pigeon

into their hole.

 

Join me at the Open Link Night over at dVerse Poets Pub to enjoy many fine poems and some delicious company.