Hyperbole, anyone?

From my hand-written journal, here’s a poem I wrote to cheer up a friend who was taking treatments for cancer. She had hired me years ago as an office manager, after she had heard me singing in the hallway while vacuuming an office adjacent to hers. You could say I was hired for an office job because I sing a lot. I consider this friend an enlightened being, contrasting sharply with many annoying bosses over the years, who have encouraged me to “keep it down.”

The real situation had nothing to do with China–but breaking from reality is a fun aspect of writing poetry. Here it is!

Shining Mouth of Songs:

Well, I was hired by an Ear
or was it two or more?
I can’t recall though it’s the tale
of my success–
what there is of it.

Just picture all the ears in China
lined in rows on tables,
stretched toward the applicant,
eager for her answers

to those unspoken questions–
being ears, they could not speak.
Of course, I would not hear them,
not having ears myself.

Can you imagine freedom
of this uncommon kind,
no bobbing breasts and bottoms,
no face, no hair, no limbs,
no stomach to be fed each day,
no backside there to clean

in the Land of Single Organs–
quite the phenomenon.

So I, the Shining Mouth of Songs,
have now enlisted help:
a floating hand with wireless brain,
a paper and a pen.
Someone who can tell you
about an interview
when lovely music
won the Ears
and brought me to the fold.

* * *

by Julie

(Working at that job for seven years was the happiest employment I have ever had, being appreciated for just being myself.)