ALTERNATING CURRENT.

By Thaina Joyce

You should be in secretary school. This profession is too masculine to pursue.

There’s no place for women manning heavy tools in the electrical department.

It is sad to see you trying. My advice: quit before you learn regret.

Your words tasted as stale as the smell in the backroom

where you sat behind a man-made metal desk, recruiting

generational misogyny. Above your head, a wall clock ticking

backward for every second of mine you wasted. A loud silence for every piece

of unwanted advice spewing out of your patriarchal

mouth. The early two thousands screamed through

your pearl eyeshadow matching the color of your Scarpin

shoes, your comments regressing time like it hasn't evolved

a year past mid-century. Your fingers interlocked

on top of my resume like it was a confidential file too feminist

for your eyes, food for paper shredders. I noticed the flickering

bulbs baring the dead bugs inside the flush mount, and I realized

that was the only lousy connection I was equipped to fix in that room.

The gloominess of your workplace could have used more lighting

and maybe with the right illumination, you would've seen that a woman's place

is wherever she chooses to be.

This interview is just a formality,

I’m hiring the boy who came before you.

You denied me an opportunity but you employed

my insecurities and self-doubt to work against my abilities.

Since then, every time I trace the wires to my ambitions,

I find clarity. Every time I feel the power to be who I am,

I sign my resignation letter to you.

Thaina (she/her) is a Brazilian-American poet and educator based in Maryland. Her work has been featured at Sledgehammer Literary Journal, Olney Magazine, and elsewhere. She has poems forthcoming at Black Cat Magazine and New Contrast Magazine. She hopes her work will empower, connect the human experience, and evoke new perspectives. Find her on Instagram: @thainawrites and Twitter: @teedistrict