A POEM - I WOULD HAVE HATED WORKING FOR HER ANYWAY

I WOULD HAVE HATED WORKING FOR HER ANYWAY
I was back on that island,
back in the USA.
And beyond broke.
There were a few job leads
I was following up.
One was for a reporter with the local newspaper.
An ad read,
GET YOUR START IN JOURNALISM
I sent over my resume
and made a follow up call the next morning.
The editor wasn’t in
and the secretary
transferred me to her voicemail.
I left a message
and then called back a few hours later.
I was on this kick
where I really wanted to give reporting a whirl.
“hello?” said the editor,
when I called back a third time,
late in the afternoon.
“hey, this is Jack Tom.
I sent my resume and-“
“yes,” she said, cutting me off.
(I knew right then she was a bitch)
A typical editor.
“I received your resume,
and I got your voicemail.
But your experience is mostly
in the service industry, right?”
“well, yeah. But the ad said
you were looking for people who wanted
to get their start in journalism.”
“well, we’re looking for people with prior experience.”
I held the phone to my face for another moment.
“but get your start would imply-“
“I’ll keep your resume on file,
and get back to you if we could use you. Bye bye.”
The phone clicked off
before I could respond.
“well,” I said to myself,
snapping my phone shut.
“fuck that bitch.
I’m glad I’m not working for her.”