A Journal of Formal & Metrical Verse


The Résumé listen

Not a single slot is left unfilled.
Look how I went from Chase to Merrill Lynch
without a week of temping time unbilled,
and taught six adjunct classes in a pinch
the year the man I married lost his mind.
Oops, that's not on there--nor is how I wound
up broke in Eastern Europe, slumped behind
a concrete block of buildings with the sound
of gravel-popping SUVs nearby,
a sobbing heap of failure and regret
considering the fastest way to die,
to cure my wanderlust for good, and yet
returned to make another cubicle mine:
my life on paper one unbroken line.

By Laura Maffei


Laura Maffei edited American Tanka from 1996-2008 and is the author of the collection Drops from Her Umbrella (Inkling Press 2006). Other sonnets have appeared in 14 by 14 and Measure. Her current project is a memoir, with a corresponding blog at lauramaffei.com.