POETS IN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ISSUE Jaime Lee Jarvis   PAPERWORK, YOUR NAME IS MARTHA Verbal finger-waggle un-subtle tongue lashing as we beg for retroactive lunch money Our receipts don’t add up expense reports wind-blown. No proof we rode the marshrutka but the dust in our names We thought we’d save the world— so far there’s nothing to save but explanations: It was too late to walk, I didn’t know the language. Thought we’d save the world— instead we’re saving pennies taking the slow bus to town riding the overnight train cotton in our ears to keep out cockroaches and drunk men’s laughter We thought we’d save the world— instead we hoard stories about Martha, and market-basket surveys, and how it all stretched out every cent and every second       Jaime Lee Jarvis left southern California in 1998 to be a Peace Corps volunteer in a small town outside Bukhara, Uzbekistan. She has not worked for the federal government since returning to the US, though she now spends hours without number editing proposals directed at one of its agencies. Other hours, she serves on the board of Split This Rock. Her poem "Aral" was the Split This Rock Poem of the Week in November 2010. Jarvis has a master's degree in technical and professional writing. She lives in Washington, DC.     Published in Volume 13, Number 3, Summer 2012.