REAL OCCUPATIONAL TALENT

i have
always
had
a talent
to get myself
either fired
or
in permanent
exile from
corporate jobs.

my best
quick jab
at getting
myself in
the shit bucket
was with
my
last job
and
a boss named ed.

he rehired me
years after
he had 'downsized'
me like a
fast food order
at a drive up stand.

it all started
with a talk
on a business trip
towards phoenix
on the tarmac
about the upcoming
presidential elections.

he asked me what
the country would
remember as george bush's
legacy if he was
to be re-elected.

my response was this,
'HE AND THE ELECTION WILL
BE REMEMBERED AS THE MOST
BRILLIANTLY DECEPTIVE
PLOY TO FOOL THE AMERICAN
PUBLIC INTO BELIEVING
ONE OF THE MOST ROTTEN
PRESIDENTS THAT UNFORTUNATELY
STOLE THE 2000 ELECTION
AND CONTINUTED HIS ROMP
TO RUIN OUR COUNTRY.'

at this,
he gave his
corporate smirk
with his splotchy full beard
and leaned back in his chair.

the transformation had
taken place
and his vapid look into
my eyes was far off
and gone.

he never talked
what political affiliation
he was,
but i knew that this
would root him out
of his hole of
corporate ambiguity
and help him make
a tough decision.

it was that day
that his pal was
verbally trashed and
he tossed me
into that bucket
as a long goner.

he proceeded to
humiliate me
over and over
again after that
trip
and it took months
for me
to put the
two and two
together.

and now that i
have counted past four
and on up towards
the thousands,
i know that
my comment in
that thick cabin air
may have been my
best business
decision
ever.