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Maureen is glum
as she receives the result 

from her career coach.
After extensive testing 

surveys, questionnaires
likes, preferences, wishes 

and ways of doing things 
she is still most suited to 

her current career as
a cat burglar.

She’d craved an alternative 
existence, 

escaped by a whisker
following a chase 

in her balaclava 
down an alley 

in the darkness,
licked her wounds,

decided it’s time to stop 
crying over spilt milk.

She stares at the result,
hisses at the coach.

Nine lives, each time 
she tries to reinvent 

it comes back the same. 
This test, the ninth,

has a new dimension, 
describes her as ‘turbulent’.

Self-doubt scratching, 
clawing its way in,

she slinks out the window
with the coach’s cream purse.