Unemployment

I’m applying to jobs everyday
bullshit applications
just so I can collect a government check

one was to Wal-Mart
and another was to a Red Lobster in the ghetto

People suggest things to me

I should be an editor

or a barista

Starbucks they tell me
has great benefits

but I’d much rather play internet poker
in cum-stained lounging sweats

thinking of creative ways
to pay for my health insurance

because it’s eight degrees outside

and every job is the same

I apply to a hardware store
and a shitty Contemporary American restaurant chain
where they call the bosses “coaches”
and the hourly employees “champs”

and if any of these employers
calls me back

I’ll tell them

I’m in the middle of a hand

and hang up

and it’ll be

our little secret

© 2008 Lee Kitzis