ROLLING WITH THE Rs Poetry Contest
Nette Onclaud
8/5/25
Special
Tenant wanted
Suitable applicant
Is responsible and behaves
Check marks to bookworms over butterflies
No drama, visitors, or noise
Nice-sized room is furnished
Landlord's hamlet
Special
be...
in charge
of...the playground now...
and...cries "it's my ball"...
threats
to...
all...
in range
of...a spoiled childs cries...
any good job i ever worked had its
applicant tests for such as relevant
personality and intellectual traits,
technical experience and knowledge
t-rumps's only test was of his greed and bull levels
len
My husband forced me to interview his new secretary.
Because I can type?
I was furiously opposed.
Be professional he said, which is not in my vocabulary.
So here she was, sitting across from me.
I leaned back in my husband’s oversized office chair.
BAM!
My legs were in the air, and my dress was around my waist.
Panties clearly showing.
I crawled off of the danged chair.
Felt my hot face.
Looked at the shocked applicant.
“You are hired,” I said.
No idea that she could only type seven words a minute.
Did not care.
Neither of us laughed.
Until we began working together.
And got to know each other.
Then we could not stop laughing.
Stange World must Change world-poems.net/ TWITTER/ FACEBOOK/ LINKED IN/ IBEau/ SB/ BRK/ G
Hatred is wide prevalent
Heart has become insolvent
Kindness, none wants to invent
Human tongue is a real serpent
People love to be highly vehement
Affection is totally here absent
God's presence is fully irrelevant
Bullet is given as a present
To make the receiver non-existent
Modernity is growing unpleasant
To be truthful, almost all resent
The guilty wants not to repent
Being cunning is damn intelligent
God is no longer an invisible agent
Chaos prevails one hundred percent
To help others, all are reluctant
Mercy is a forgotten lubricant
Holy Buddha turned a mendicant
He was truly an honest applicant
May God protect us from a militant.
Knock, knock, is anyone there?
Feels like there’s no one home.
It’s only God filling my empty space,
When I think about it, I become sad.
Feels like no matter my accomplishments,
Until I get married, I’m a pointless applicant.
It’s natural to feel alone and lonely,
When your atmosphere comes in couples.
Being single highlights the “I” in island,
It’s cold and lonely when there’s only one.
Searching for life’s joy and satisfaction,
Is parallel to embarking a quest without direction.
The emptiness is pushing me to achieve,
A successful life that I desire for me.
Everything feels like it’s falling apart,
I keep failing at the first part.
The struggle feels never ending,
Taking the same class over and over.
I’m not a failure in spite of my struggle,
Need help getting through the tunnel.
First humbly comply,
An effort making to apply,
Self assuring that they would reply:
That God shall your needs supply,
Your forms to shorter routes ply.
Yes, first boldly apply
And you’ve succeeded to imply
That you shall never away fly
When “Dear Sir” decides to be sly…
The Doubting Christian Applicant
Sometimes forgets he is a communicant.
Thirty hours early for her interview.
Impressive or ludicrous?
She ordered everything on the menu.
Wanted to taste each dish before accepting position.
Is she the new chef? I inquired.
No, a potential hostess.
I stared at the woman.
She looked more like a bouncer.
Will she fit into the skimpy kitty cat uniform? I asked.
And if she does not, will there be a discrimination lawsuit?
We were consternated, confused, worried, concerned.
She are her feast daintily, holding her pinkies up.
Confident that in some way or another it was a win-win for her.
Not her first rodeo apparently.
Should one merely settle for the word ‘Style’
In lieu of the more appropriate ‘Guile’?
A secretary asking an applicant to wait for a while
But still not nearing this anxious file;
Letting the doomed document and others pile,
Sometimes taking this to a shocking mile:
Many false phone calls and not-to connect dial
Freshly asserting how Man has been shoddily vile.
Even when Applicant starts raving, secreting bile,
Feet noisily attacking office tile;
He, mentally wishing for the contents of a poisoned vial
Or resourcefully arguing his case, Fertile River Nile…
It’s all BUREAUCRATIC GUILE!
Are you our sort of writer?
Do you write
Stories or poems
Memoirs or nonfiction
Or some other form?
Blank pages wait for something new, do you
Put something on it before you walk away?
Stop waiting.
Open your notebook,
Empty, empty, do you need a pen
Click it and write
A passage or metaphor
And with it
Will you marry your thoughts
It is your destiny.
To rest your eyes you’ll see
Something with your mind
You’ll take stock of your life
And leave your heart naked
Do you want a disguise-
Rouge and bright
Will you marry your lines
Will they shatter or fade with the sun
Will they weaken with the passage of time
Others remember you by.
Now your muse is weary
I have an answer for that.
Come on friend, sit at the table
And see what you make of that.
Your thoughts will be silver
Your words framed in gold.
A shimmering life if you look
Images for the heart
It will sing to you.
It works, even if just a little
Your story has a hole, a ghost to tell
Behind your eye, you have an image
It’s your time to shine
Will you marry your lines?
Thanks to Sylvia Path for her great works. My poem is based on her piece, titled “The Applicant.”
I - applicant for loves generosity
Dared to knock on this door
Dispelling each known calamity
Beseech thee thus to trust and dream again
Yet far away, hopes beckoning gleam
At journeys end the restoration complete
Trembling here - challenging a fate
Submitted my trade
To an outcome unknown
My knock, a whisper
My presence betrayed by a thundering heart
Hearing the footfall of happiness within
My Ex Husband:-
Lied to me
Was often drunk and violent
Belittled me
Spent all my money
Ran off with my best friend ...
HE’S FIRED!
Position is now vacant
the new applicant needs to be:-
Honest
Teetotal and gentle as a lamb
Stand by me through thick and thin and not put me down
Solvent enough to buy me the odd bunch of flowers or an orchid
Loyal – (the only real friends I have left are male!)
If you think you can fill this position ...
YOU’RE HIRED!
Contest: The Interview – Judy Konos
7th June 2015
Jan Allison
Mine was counter number nine I heard
No one there what a relief
I sat to be told you next
Where? At ten; nine is off now.
Saw a real American woman
Finger scans each applicant
From behind a big glass screen;
It scared me to confront her.
From all the courage I could muster
Coaxed myself to take the turn
Choked throat, dry mouth came up front
Holding on to my file bag;
So they redo scans again I thought
Look for space to place papers
"Put them on the crucible ledge"
She said in a mild simple tone;
I could not meet her eyes and shivered
Put hands as fast as I could
Let left fingers fall in line
Pressed hard at each grip to scan;
"Too dry run the tips over your cheek,
Like this" and gave her first smile;
Ran both hands over my cheeks
With left over, moved for right;
"Perfect will do" she smiled back at me
Just ID checks, saw my relief
Beyond 'lip service' she had come
To sequester my heart beats:
Such a yearning in my heart to find a one
No, find the one
With the appropriate prerequisites
The right experience
The proper internships to complete my externship
The perfect applicant
Just right for the job
After many interviews and several orientations
I was able to convince myself you didn’t exist
Until…
That long conversation we had on that night off
I didn’t know what it was
Maybe it was your voice
Or maybe your laugh
All I know- is that at that moment,
The idea of the perfect applicant,
No, employee, rushed back into my mind
You may possibly know this, but I’ve never told you
So I guess now is the best time
Your cosmic beauty and your angelic sound waves
Bring my black hole to the brink of bewilderment
You send my mind on expeditions to another galaxy
Yet, like the roots of the oak tree, you are so grounded
You know not how you have impacted my life
At times, you fill me with the vivacity that I thought I could only find in the fiction
paperbacks
I live in awe with you
And like I said, you may not know,
So simply put…
I’m feeling you
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