Seeing Her For Real - May 2 2022

 

Seeing Her For Real

May 2 2022

The cashier looks bored.

Her store uniform

is not flattering.

She has a sore back

from lifting and swivelling

sitting too long.

The smile has gotten tighter

as the hours have worn on;

she tries to be nice,

but customers aren't always right

and the boss is a little handsy.

How many cans of soup

and cartons of eggs

has she scanned today?

Counting change

for the few who pay in cash;

grubby bills

that have touched too many hands,

frugal old ladies

pinching out coins.

But to the boyfriend

who will meet her after work

she is rare and beautiful

and never boring.

So she tries not to break

her carefully manicured nails.

Stares icily

at adolescent men's

lame flirtations,

the seedy ones

who proposition her.

Thinks about later tonight

when she will dress up nicely

and be the apple of his eye,

instead of the check-out girl

for whom people have waited too long

in the one line

that's hardly moved.

By now, she knows all the produce by heart,

the broccoli, lettuce, and squash

today's special features.

But rutabagas defeat her,

and she must turn to the price card

before punching them in.

Who knew

there were still thing to learn

in this minimum wage job?

When the best to be hoped for

is a humorous vegetable

to relieve the heavy boredom.

After which she soldiers on

for two more hours

before her long awaited break.

Milk, bread, cube steak.

A tired bouquet

of grocery store roses

in a cellophane cone.

A sentimental birthday card

for a long-distance lover

who's been absent too long.

I considered calling it The Inner Lives of Anonymous People, but then thought that was too on the nose. But that is the point of this poem. Instead of seeing people as objects, impediments, or instrumental operators who tangentially touch our lives in some way we find useful, they are, of course, whole people who contain an entire universe. Just like ourselves! There is lots going on beneath the surface: with the check-out girl, as well as with the customers touched on at the end. A backstory we only get hints of.