BY: JESSICA BEUKER
“You were wearing pants with lint stuck to both knees,
like little children you are afraid to have one day.
It was professional enough.
You borrowed your sister’s shirt,
because the iron burned a tortilla-shaped hole in the one you were planning on wearing.
It was professional enough.”
Poet and writer, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, describes being at a job interview – for a job you don’t want.
Her poem, Black Thong Underwear, is a powerful example of the all-too-often soul sucking corporate office life. The life that many people try to run away from, but fall backwards into. She also notes that not everybody has a choice.
“What is the word for being lucky enough to turn something down?
What does it mean if you don’t care where your heart is,
as long as you can put money in your savings account?”
The poem perfectly encapsulates the corporate-heart divide, and how we are sometimes forced to choose one or the other.
Watch her entire performance below.