the cashier

stock-still &
stationary---
the standing begins---
be it in the crazy hour of the absurdly early morning,
or the late eve (maybe you get lucky enough to work at a 24/7 establishment & sweat it from the night till’ the morn)
when you miss out on all the fun your friends are having when they’re not working---
regardless,
with legs panging from balancing upon the mat that was sat there for
your
“comfort”
by management trying to extinguish the grievances of the
peons
as quickly as possible
and the starch white shirt you wear
with your clip-on tie
and your name tag bearing a label that was printed just a bit
askew
reading your shortened first name
(for quick & annoying nicknaming)
& your misspelled last name
in the proverbial hell that is
grocery
you run foodstuff after foodstuff over the scanners
waiting for that
15 minutes of sanity
that comes in four hours
to get out of the place
& stand outside
seeing the beautiful day you’ve sacrificed
which you’ll never get back again
in order to tally up those hours of
minimum wage
and don’t complain now
because you know the stats
you know that x number of folks out there have ph.d’s and no job
they went to school for ten years to end up
washing dishes
flipping burgers
swabbing the deck
raising that hand to stop those stupid kids from running across the street too quickly
pumping gas
etcetera.

every customer has something moronic to observe
and comment, bringing you into their own personal strife
while being an armchair psychiatrist
certainly wasn’t part of your job description
but then again
when you applied, you didn’t care much about the job description
even you,
naively
thought that what you saw em’ doing when you walked in
was what you were gonna be doing
and that alone
would be the extent of your responsibilities
and yet
the joke’s on you
because when there is nothing to do
nobody to ring up
you got to keep yourself busy somehow
before that boss lady
before that boss man
before that boss early twenty-something (who may just be only a bit older than you but who started there when they were 15 and now can tell you what to do)
yes,
before one of em’ comes around and tells you to do something
extremely tedious and time consuming
killing
away
the hours
the minutes
the seconds
of your life
(but you know, “if you work here long enough and keep your nose to the grindstone---you might just get a few more table scraps and attain that holy moniker “manager” yourself).

did you tuck in your shirt?
did you shave?
did you tie back your hair?
did you take all your piercings out?
any of your tats showing?
hmmm
when you got them you didn’t think that this is where you would end up
you
thought the product of your creative mind would
pull
you
through
&
you, like bob,
“got a head of full of ideas that are driving you insane”
but bob made his scratch
that’s why you know his words
&
every day you are feeling more sidetracked
drowning in the everyday ways to try and circumvent your reality
and they bog down
every real bit of progress that could be made
if you could just
accept this
brief
demise
& produce in the face of all else
your work---that is,
what truly makes you happy
and in that
fight this place
fight this system that is trying to hang you
trying to stuff your head in that little circle of wood
and
drop
the
diagonal
guillotine
blade.

you alone hold the way out in the grip of your sole ambition.