You can’t count how many times

you’ve been asked to submit a CV and yet
out of all the items listed— publications,
experience, service— the things that keep
getting singled out are English was not
her first language or She is Philippino [sic]
by birth— As if some dark body, like a fly
or roach, has insinuated itself in the heart
of the big floral arrangement you worked
so hard to put together for inspection.