GRACE CAVALIERI

Resume

We sit huddled in the hut stunned with waiting to see who will get the job

I have a Masters in cooking, and a Pedigree in fashion, but nothing in the Classics

I wear a sparkling chartreuse shirt over my naked top anyway

even if I won’t get called

You can’t see through

Maybe my dead mother-in-law will rise from her scattered ashes 

to give my dead sister her square-cut diamond ring and turquoise necklace meant for me

and give her approval for me to marry my dead husband after she broke our engagement

then I wouldn’t have to work and could saunter around in bliss wearing my ruffled hostess apron  

and he could build the neighbor’s deck he always wanted as if he were 20 again

I don’t really want that job or any other and I hope my friend will get it, the feckless prodigal one

He needs the money and I love to serve Iced tea.

Grace Cavalieri is an American poet, playwright and radio host of "The Poet and the Poem" from the Library of Congress. In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.