Apply Yourself

wearing my best 6-year-old underwear
i grasp the pen with the strength of a thousand
wage-slave laborers
another job application

my life’s low-lights
old jobs and disappointments
jotted out for a hiring manager
who might be all of 22

old bosses names forgotten
but their wrath against you
not so much

the ink from my pen
a tattoo of lies
to paper

you’re a veteran of many wars
real
and self-made
you’ve pushed the hickory plow
hauled this-washed that-built it-tore it down-fed kids-fixed these and broke those

the ink from my pen
a tattoo of lies
to paper

***