Small Stones: Extended Remixes #9

The small stone for January 10th was about a bit on an application form that was giving me trouble. Here's the new long version.

Four Hundred Words

An application form               
With the easy bits filled in               
Lay open on my desk while I reflected       
I'd done career history               
I'd done my education               
The details of my life had been selected       
Every job I'd ever had               
And  schooldays before them           
Had been detailed in appropriate degree       
Experience was noted               
And references were written           
I'd put everything they'd need to know of me   
The question on the back page           
Was the one that caused a problem           
Had me chewing at my pencil with a frown
Four hundred words were wanted
About career achievements
But only recent ones could be put down.
Four hundred words I'd thought
That would be a piece of cake
I'd surely done more than enough to tell
But now I came to think of it
I'd done no more than my job
And although I'd have to say I'd done it well
It isn't an achievement
To arrive day after  day
And do only all the things they pay you for
I felt that on the form
The people who'd devised it
Would most certainly expect a little more
I pondered long and hard
And then did what I could
To make something up that sounded  vaguely right
I said I'd trained the trainees
In IT and stuff like that
I hadn't but if they'd asked me to, I might
A dozen drafts were written
And discarded in the bin
I rewrote until my head began to throb
But finally I finished it
And sent the damned thing in.
It came as no surprise to lose the job.