21st Century Problems: Your College Degree is No Good Here (#11) (Louis Toliver Jr)

I guess I was at the point where I had the time to pick up another job, considering my FTM transgendered boyfriend broke up with me at Picadilly. I’m not good with being idle AT ALL. When I’m idle, I’m stuck trying to figure out why I think the way I do and my thinking is always distracted by my A.D.D. which is always an issue because I’m not really sure that I always stay on target for what the point is of sharing my observations about living in a world that makes sense and doesn’t make sense. See what I mean? I’m supposed to be talking about why my 4-year Bachelor’s college in General Studies (What the hell is that?) degree hasn’t paid off exactly the way I want it. That’s why I’m working 5 jobs with a college degree. Did I mention I have no health insurance?...So, I am basically desperate. I live in a country that has convinced me that there are no jobs around. Which is code for “jobs we don’t want to do.” So, I bit the bullet and went to McDonald’s to apply for a manager’s position. Working in the fast food industry is tough the days with all the menu options, health awareness, and 24-hour service. Working in fast food would put me in a tight spot being that they want me to be there 8-10 hours a day! That’s hard because my jobs that I have currently are all designed around my A.D.D. I can only maintain focus for so long on one task…So, I go in for the job interview. I am immediately turned away because I don’t have a McDegree. “Generally” speaking, there was no point really to this “general” rant like my college degree that makes me feel “general.”

Comments

Come Hither (Annette Redmond Walters - Lafayette, LA)

I meant it not this way but the tears just flow and my makeup smearing all the more, leaving behind that familiar filthy residue. I may have begun to drive myself away, dragging you down as well. But it's done, I've flipped the switch and now it's dark once more. How painful is the music to my ears, I can't stand to be alone in it, yet here I am again. I pray you fly back and safely and warmly to me, though I fear I've dug the grave too deeply. As the dirt shifts within my soul, I choke on those loving words I'd meant for you. All the fragments of light I see becoming smaller and I wish to be near you in your embrace that might make me feel the warmth I'm missing. And in reality, I doubt I'd breathe another breath without you. So come hither and quickly soothe my dying heart, you are the only cure I know. I cry and cry again, come hither to heal and love me. Come hither and help me dry my tears.

Let That Fucker Burn (John Chenvert - Napoleonville, LA)

Let that fucker burn. Let the fire crackle like the whips once did— like bone meeting leather, like screams swallowed by the trees. Let the white columns crumble to ash. Not as tragedy— but as truth, unearthing itself from beneath generations of silence. Nottoway is not a mansion. It’s a mausoleum. A lie carved in stone to honor the hands that held the whip, not the backs that bore it. They called it the “White Castle.” A place of beauty. A place for weddings, for photo ops, for pretending that horror can be made elegant if the curtains match the guilt. But no paint can cover what happened there. Blood doesn’t wash out with white linens. And pain doesn’t forget just because you renamed it history. I’m not Black. And I won’t pretend to carry that weight. But I also won’t ignore it. My people—the Guanches—were taken too. Our language silenced. Our land stolen. Our names nearly erased. So yes, I know colonization. Yes, I know what it means to be disappeared. But I also know this— my skin ...

Lunatic (Lily Lechler - New Orleans, LA)

“Lunacy” comes from the moon, Who cycles through brilliance and darkness Bipolarity’s patterns are not so easily assumed Opposites not so well harnessed Who cycles through brilliance and darkness? The girl who sits in bed, wrestling with Opposites. Not so well harnessed As she thought, her brain gives reason the slip The girl who sits in bed, wrestling with Her body, depressed, her thoughts manic. As she thought, her brain gave reason the slip And gives the gift of life in a dreamlike panic. Her body depressed her thoughts. Manic Lunacy comes from the moon And gives the gift of life in a dreamlike panic Bipolarity’s patterns are not so easily assumed

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