Loophole

What is fact to one generation
is fantasy to another
fantasy
slow
then fast forward
as invention becomes consumerism.

Progress. Inheritance or bequest?
The Wright brothers fleeting airborne
sires jet travel.
Valves transistors and diodes
serially rearrange and contract : desktop, notebook, tablet.

The present future versus slumbering nostalgia
immobile phones
clunky photocopiers
bikes without the prefix Mt.
The sigh of memory by comfort
except for the fantasy that now always will be.
Employment
recruiters came to universities and colleges then
no applications or resume
a single interview and letter from a professor.
Salary prescribed – start date by negotiation.

Five years later travel beckons – a decade of itinerancy
in the mid 90s a return to career and settlement.
Applications must now be typed.
Two referees. Curriculum vitae
professional help is sought with the last.
A woman of indeterminate age
cheerful and irreverent
trims surplus detail – adds market skills.

For this employer a photograph 3″ x 3″ is required
a re-entrant to the workplace puzzles this necessity.
An exhalation and look
the look of a kindly aunt to a dim nephew.
“It allows exclusion the law doesn’t
gender
ethnicity
religion, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
A picture doesn’t need to be a thousand words sweetie.”

To learn of the background to Loophole click Backstage