Unqualified

Unqualified

I can insert key to lock,
peel an orange,
squeeze foot to socks—

but

I didn’t earn a 
Harvard Law degree,
or Stanford PhD—

I’m not a Rhodes scholar, 
or Oxford Fellow—

Cal Tech Engineer,
or win Summa Cum Laude.

 Lacking even a house cat’s
 portion of common sense,

I’ve had the professors,
Mr. Street
and Ms. Hardway,

suffered the lessons learned,
passed the potholes by

and taken my honors with pride
in life’s school of hard knocks. 

. . . j
from the Childhood Remedy and Other Such collection