Member Poem

 
*After Julie Chevalier's, "Plan B." after Vivienne Plumb's, "The alternative plan"
 
Day 1: Surf the web and sign up for job notices; Day 2: Revise resume; Day 3: Attend job fair; Day 4: Print out resume and send to local temp agencies; Day 5: What?! I'm not working for minimum wage! Don't you know I have degrees?!; Day 6: Purchase office supplies, especially those multicolored sticky notes, to create reminders to follow-up on stupid temp jobs; Day 7: Throw away stickies (or better yet burn them at the full moon) and use computer calender to schedule; Day 8: I actually don't know what to do with myself today; Day 9: Make appointment with job coach; Day 10: Go to that new brewery on the corner, and just have a single flight; Day 11: I do so love odd numbers. . .Rechedule that coaching session and meditate and do yoga instead; Day 12: Read articles on what NOT to say at a job interview; Day 13: Look up HR regs on what they cannot ask me during a job interview - and no, I'm clearly not in my 20s anymore; Day 14: Contact that networking group for self-employed persons; Day 15: Attend workshop for women-in-transition; Day 16: Go on pub crawl with new friends from networking group; Day 17: Seriously consider starting a company with your networking group, especially because there is beer involved; Day 18: Since I don't like even numbers, so I should probably see if I qualify for unemployment insurance; Day 19: Forget about applying for job-jobs and check freelance writers lists instead; Day 20: Feeling utterly discouraged today. Okay, I'm feeling despair and fear and how I'll be old and alone and living in some shelter; Day 21: Do forgiveness practice; Day 22: Take walk on beach, read book on decluttering my life; Day 23: Take everything out of closets and donate half; Day 24: Heard back from unemployment insurance. . .Whoopie! They're going to give me $95.00 a week; Day 25: Restack boxes in living room as the van will pick up donations tthe day after omorrow; Day 26: Take several books out of boxes that I want to reread; Day 27: Slept really good last night after all that cleaning and sorting and donating. . .Take boxes outside for donation van; Day 28: Create job search log, fill in from memory; Day 29: Check job lists; Day 30: Spend the day revising one of my unfinished novels; Day 31: Continue revising novel.

 
*Published in the Meanjin Quarterly, https://meanjin.com.au/