Content warning: drinking, domestic abuse
YOU EMAILED ME YOUR RÉSUMÉ
You were looking for different words to say good team player. I suggested you use more verbs. I suggested you say you over saw the team. I suggested you call me. Together, we practiced for the part of the interview where they ask if you have any questions. I have a question. My question is, what team do we play for. My question is, what did you do, did you manage or over see, my question is, what did you oversee, my question is why do we keep using the same words and how would a wolf talk and what would it say.
THE WOLF EMAILED ME ITS RÉSUMÉ
works well with others magna no, summa no, magna cum laude feels at home in competitive fast-paced work environments no, thrives in highly-structured, close-knit work environments should i say team, community or should i say environment should i say highly specialized harder than bone the one who went in first when it heard the herd-lost calf call out certificate program master of business administration highly motivated who went in second when it smelled the coat dyed red words per minute experience with excel and java executed special projects stumbled home the morning after wearing someone else’s clothes went in first and never once fell behind not ever
THE ANIMALS IN THE ROOM
You drank too much. The animals came into the room.
They saw your path to the exit blocked. Their herd-sense
calculated one or two escape routes, attuned
tick-bitten ears on your behalf to the exact
moment when you could have spoken up, turned an art
appraiser’s eye to silence, threw themselves into
the painting on the wall, the deer with hard black eyes
with one bright painful spot of blue in them. They came
into the room. Your terror wanted them to watch
what happened and your terror saw the blue spot and
your terror got a lichen-eating audience
to your bullseye focus on that blue-stained motel
deerseye, your terror drank too much, your eyes summoned
them, they saw your story shrink into a fist.
THE WOLF MAKES AN APPOINTMENT AT THE O.B-G.Y.N.
I just had some quick questions. I was just calling for a routine checkup. My first question is whatare you saying. My next question is what do you mean by contraindication. What do you mean by sexual preference. What exactly are you offering me and can I avoid eye contact and can I say no thank you and
Look, is this one of those things where the story’s author finds itself complicit because I was just asking questions I was not following orders I was just writing things down and I didn’t ask for any of this. It’s not my fault if the cattle don’t keep track of their numbers, it’s not up to me whose clothes I’m wearing and if fawns go missing. What I am asking is,
Look, it was just body language. It doesn’t mean anything. I’m just saying I was hungry, it was just a hotel room I paid for. I was only baring my teeth for show.
THE WOLF RETURNS YOUR CALL
It has a question. It wants to know what you mean when you say Seem. For example, when they say that You don’t seem like yourself, it does not know what Seeming is, so it can’t tell. You tell it this is a question of taxonomy. This is a question, this is not a pet. This is a question, a wild animal. Do not touch the bars. Keep your hands to your self. Come home wearing someone else’s clothes. Don’t be mistaken. What do they mean by Do not feed. Do you understand what that means. Do you find it confusing for some reason, when it licks your face and asks you questions. What happened, it asks. You’re crying. What does crying mean.
Meghan Kemp-Gee was born in Vancouver BC and writes poetry, comics, and scripts in Los Angeles. She won the Poetry Society of America 2014 Lyric Poetry Award. Her work has also appeared in Copper Nickel, Helen: A Literary Magazine, The Rush, Switchback, and Skyd Magazine. She teaches written inquiry and composition at Chapman University.
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