PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

 ~The Applicant~

When America discontinued capital punishment Joe was out of a job. He had been an executioner for the federal governmemt since he graduated from college at the age of twenty. Now, forty-five years old and unemployed Joe carried around a sick feeling of loss in his gut pretty much all day every day. Unemployment benefits helped pay the bills, but his self esteem was doomed to poverty. He didn't know what to do. Joe had no other skills. 

Joe met his old friend Bob at a local tavern one evening. Bob could see Joe was feeling down and asked why. Joe explained the cause of his blues and Bob wanted to help, so he suggested Joe go see his brother-in-law who was always looking for help at the detention center for troubled youths downtown. Joe told Bob he had no experience in that line of work. Bob told him don't worry about it. The center was desperate. 

The next day Joe went to the detention center and filled out an application. After a while Bob's brother-in-law, Jerry,  greeted him and they had a seat in his office. Joe handed Jerry his application. 

"Thanks for coming in, Joe." Jerry said. 

"You're welcome." Replied Joe.

"We have a lot of trouble keeping staff on board. Because of the COVID situation and schools being closed most of our hires lately are out-of-work teachers and school counselors. These kids are pretty rough. When they recognize team members as teachers or counselors they spread the word amongst themselves and give them a real bad time until they quit. Speaking of employment--I see you have "federal employee" as your employment history on your application. May I ask what you did with them? "

"Sure. Replied Joe. I was an executioner."

"You killed people?"

"Yes."

"When can you start?"