Inversion (After Baselitz)

Street lamps sizzle orange in
purple dampened skies
like cigarettes in the sink.

Career Prospects

I recruit for recruitment’s sake
and every year the bosses hands I shake
to celebrate my promotion.
I impress my folks with the sums I make
and feign interest and devotion

for the job I do and the life I have.
I work hard in week and misbehave
on Friday nights and at week’s end.
On Monday mornings I wash and shave
and do it all again.

I recruit for an agency
that recruits people like you and me
to carry on recruiting.
I perform a service for the industry
and you all should be saluting.

For without us and our merry lot
your generic CV would be forgot
and you’d never land a job.
But once you’ve signed that dot-
ted line
you will have joined our mob.

What will we do when we’ve reached our goal;
once we take our cut and sell your soul,
once every one is recruited
into recruitment jobs at entry-level role?
This game will be rebooted.