I was rejected four times today,
maybe five.
I was fine after the first two
and then I started getting irritable.
I spilled a drop of coffee
in the cafeteria downstairs
and wiped it with my sleeve so
no one would notice,
but I saw the old man sneer.
The third one, fourth one, fifth one,
all blended into a big red sign
that read "unworthy".
Hardly surprising.
It was hard to remind myself
 that I was made of stardust,
I felt rather that I was created
out of the dust of stars,
the careless sweeps of discarded material
from somewhere farther out than the sun.
But days go on as do the stars,
I burned my tongue.