"SELF-PORTRAIT AS A COVER LETTER", Joshua Lim
Within the margins of this one-sided page,
I contort myself beyond bended knee.
All that I am boiled and stripped to the bone
for a bridge between now and a future
where interests converge, where we both wait:
you for able hands, and I on ones that feed.
And when these are denied, they are dismantled,
then rinsed, then reassembled, then once more
re-presented until they return clothed
with the crumbs I seek for my daily bread.
Make no mistake, I have skin in this game -
stretched like my experiences to hide how
my guts never fail to come up short, how
the heart in my breast longs for a drumbeat,
each tap a shoe for my feet to slip into.
Consider this my submission, please.
Tell me if I’ll ever be a good fit.