Declivity
Job fair
Hopes fall quietly
like a warm cake
pulled straight from the oven
into a chilly room
Resumes
frosted with overstated job titles
deflating
in the face of sharp eyes
and cooling enthusiasm
11/21/19
4 thoughts on “Declivity”
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Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Wow! Thinned out, worn down, deflated, and demoralized. What a downer, a well expressed depressed downer,
Finding a job is so hard and you have to take a lot of rejection. On the other hand, when the offer comes in, oh so sweet this cake is! Rising so high!
Your poem does a great job of communicating those hollow feelings of rejection and failure. I have only ever been to one job fair and I was an 18 year old so it is fair enough that was not a top pick for anyone. I was mostly frustrated that I had wasted an entire afternoon for zero outcome.
I never went to a job fair but I clearly remember the job hunting process I went through in 1979 as I prepared to leave college in 1980. I needed a “grown-up” job since I was on my own, so every interview was very important. This poem came about after I was reading about people attending a job fair, their hopes and fears, and remembering my own job search in light of that.