Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature. Over 16,000 daily subscribers. Over 7,000 archived posts.
Jason Baldinger: Résumé
dear human resources manager I know you get millions of pieces of paper from job hungry applicants that you don’t give a fuck about much as we don’t give a fuck about you but capitalism hasn’t ended I mean it theoretically ended when the Industrial Revolution was pronounced dead but capital’s endless exploitation is still rampant apparently just to live just to experience life is not an acceptable trade I suppose it doesn’t matter that this is not meaningful work there are mostly retail and service jobs left for low-wage workers who could only be so lucky to dream about a universal basic income or for that fact free health care so I’ll happily wait on Americans who somehow believe that material possessions will somehow fill the emptiness in their hearts I can’t tell you what intangible qualities I offer. I’m quick with new tasks I’ve run businesses for friends dying of cancer I work hard when there’s work to be done I think outside of the box I like to write poems and daydream I want to cry at least once a day because the world is beautiful because the world is sad because I might be hungover because existence is ultimately futile I can tell you I won’t spend more than two hours a day in the bathroom writing poems on paper or on the stall walls if I choose the walls I promise you’ll have incredibly articulate customers I’ll even hide a dictionary behind the toilet for customers to translate because sometimes I get a penchant to use a five-dollar word I’ll happily volunteer my Webster’s that I stole in eighth grade it has space guns drawn in the margins but it’s served me well for almost thirty years I have no idea where I’ll be in five years in ten years, hell if any of us could see that far into the future we wouldn’t be sitting here waiting for a fucking job hell, I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up, or maybe I know but people don’t pay poets money people don’t believe in art people only believe in money or a god that don’t exist they long for an afterlife like I long for early retirement I promise I won’t say that out loud I think it’s safe to say I’m highly adaptable last week I installed cabinets one day hung a suspended ceiling the next I sold records for friends in my spare time I wrote and submitted poems agreed to do another benefit show then woke up and was a book mule I drank beer on my break because it tasted good and I was tired and it was offered and I learned a long time ago that you should always say no in moderation seriously, I’ve sold paint to people I’ve been cursed out for not having the key to the narcotics locker when I managed a drug store I pretended once to care about office supplies sporting goods, deli meat, detailing cars processing checks, auto parts and that doesn’t count all the things that I may have pretended to care about because I needed a job then as I need a job now I ask that if you drug test I’ll pass as long as you don’t test for marijuana I know it’s still sort of illegal I promise I won’t smoke it before a shift or in the middle of a shift I do like it socially generally, it’s the only way I get a good night’s sleep and that’s important for productivity that’s what you want right happy and productive workers anesthetized and dreamless wading through their lives just getting by constantly careening at the drop edge of broke a paycheck away from being hungry a paycheck away from being homeless a paycheck away from hope
First published in Heartland: Poems of Love, Resistance and Solidarity (2017)
Vox Populi 
Jason Baldinger, a brilliant working-class poet willing to scream about the human crimes of capitalism. Thanks to Jason and to Vox Populi for posting. Readers should share this widely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Mel. Contemporary American poetry has been dominated by the MFA industry for the last two generations. It’s great to read a poet like Baldinger who records what life is like for most Americans.
LikeLike