References Available

The tie is draped over the kitchen chair,

a silk strip I didn't get to use.

The email came through at four-oh-five,

thanking me for my time in that flat way.

I spent forty minutes in a box made of glass

watching a man who didn't like my face.

He had a blue ballpoint stuck in his mouth,

grinding his molars into the plastic.

I couldn't stop looking at the teeth marks,

the jagged little ruins in the ink.

He stared at the coffee stain on my resume

like it was the most interesting thing I’d ever done.