Friday, May 09, 2008
In Line @Walgreens
At head of which, red-
faced woman furiously
dispenses coupons to
cashier. She’s coiled for
argument & gets it. (Perhaps
expirations, or trying to
mate with wrong products.)
The seven of us behind frit-
ter...until the manager gets
paged. Then the endless, spit-
ting & querulous parsings with
him. No one in line says a thing.
We don’t even bleat. Ten
minutes pass. In
some infinite realm of mercy,
Cosmetics’ register opens
and I streak there.
As I finish, the woman
has finally reconciled, trans-
ported to Bargain Valhalla, her
eyes twin fires of triumph!
The person behind her,
a Vietnamese woman,
drops a few words
which strike as daggers of
ice, the offender sneering back,
but off-balance nonetheless,
gathering her spoils. No wonder
there’s hatred of immigrants.
After finding traction, they
won’t eat shit. Americans!
At head of which, red-
faced woman furiously
dispenses coupons to
cashier. She’s coiled for
argument & gets it. (Perhaps
expirations, or trying to
mate with wrong products.)
The seven of us behind frit-
ter...until the manager gets
paged. Then the endless, spit-
ting & querulous parsings with
him. No one in line says a thing.
We don’t even bleat. Ten
minutes pass. In
some infinite realm of mercy,
Cosmetics’ register opens
and I streak there.
As I finish, the woman
has finally reconciled, trans-
ported to Bargain Valhalla, her
eyes twin fires of triumph!
The person behind her,
a Vietnamese woman,
drops a few words
which strike as daggers of
ice, the offender sneering back,
but off-balance nonetheless,
gathering her spoils. No wonder
there’s hatred of immigrants.
After finding traction, they
won’t eat shit. Americans!
