She reads you a list of their core values
Two word pairings, all shallow
Then comes the test, and you have to
Pick only one, the best one
The core value that speaks the loudest
To your character, your being
At this point, the interview is getting
Personal, so personal, you could almost
Be talking to a friend or a therapist
You might even want to sit
On her lap
You choose, “Grow or die,” and add
“It is scary” — wrong answer
Another bombed interview
Over values—maybe you have no values
Yet none of the word pairings
Make sense, they are just cartoon balloons
Arbitrarily hung in the nebula
Like paper moons
They are slogan like
But not slogans
Void candy
Gob stoppers
Jobs not gotten
You decide to make up your own values
That you might shout like a cheerleader
In repetition while twirling ecstatically
over the gym floor
You bundle them with your own
business methodology for entrepreneurs:
Born to lose
Shit or ricochet
Must we pretend so hard
My cat farted
Ayenda-Lamenda-Hibatchi
Snatcho, the secret Marx brother
Day-old crotches of underwear rise out of the ashes
I’d really love a sandwich right now
My application is in the mail
Good night sweethearts of the rich, the clever, the
Indescribably successful