Sunday, September 21, 2008

POEM: Daily Grind


Daily Grind

For my first check I worked as a checkout boy.
At $1.35 an hour, for 20 hours a week
I would check out all of the pretty, young mothers.
I was 16 and healthy. All I could think about
while bagging their groceries
was me
"bagging their groceries"

After 3 months the boss took me aside
put his arm around my shoulder and said
"You're doing a really good job. I'm gonna
raise your pay to $1.40." He said " Kevin
at this rate - the sky's the limit"

I glanced out the window and began to see
that it was clouding up.

In the fall I moved to the Meat Department.
Boning scraps and grinding kangaroo meat that
was shipped frozen from Australia. Thawing and
jamming anything red into the grinder, I knew
it wouldn't be satisfied until it got a piece of me.

(from the chapbook ROCKING GENTLY OUT OF SYNC, 1995; photo by me)




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And you didn't notice Julie waiting tables in the restaurant upstairs?

Anonymous said...

Timothy - Perhaps you mean the Bull Pen? The little hole in the wall restaurant in the SW corner of the grocery store? I do not remember any "upstairs" at the grocery. My sister Peggy worked at the Bull Pen and pulled the strings that got me the job at Dot's.