#cashier
"Are you paying by card ?
Thank you.
Next."
Her voice more monotonous as the sun goes down,
Every day,
Like the planets do the rounds,
Her voice,
Anthem of the working class,
Deaf
To the music of the spheres
And deadened by routine
Apr 25
Apr 25, 2026 at 2:29 PM UTC
It was the midnight hour
She was running the register
Great smile with a pixie haircut
That is when I noticed
Her history exposed
In tiny cuts
From wrist to elbow
Scars bubbled over her smooth skin
I tried not to look
To read
Her history
In her silence
I knew she had caught me
Peeking
Aug 26, 2020
Aug 26, 2020 at 11:01 PM UTC
you can only have one
box of eggs she said
but we have to make omelettes
for five
well you just can't have them
she reiterated
now cashiers are making
culinary decisions in my household
Apr 15, 2020
Apr 15, 2020 at 6:36 PM UTC
Sometimes I wonder
if the dollar that paid for my soda
was ever in a strippers underwear.
And then...I wonder
if the cashier is ever thinking the same thing.
Nov 18, 2018
Nov 18, 2018 at 10:57 PM UTC
"Hello, how are you?"
I say in a voice I can't believe is mine.
I hate it so much.
It's become like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.
I ask the human in front of me,
"What can I get you today?"
They ignore me.
Finally someone approaches.
It's an older lady,
gray bushy hair with wild eyes.
I smile and begin to take her order.
She begins to make rude remarks towards me.
She leaves,
someone else approaches.
It's a man angry about a price I did not set.
He takes it out on me.
I take all of the verbal punches.
From people who have had their worst days,
to people who are just too privileged to give a little kindness,
I smile through it all.
I don't really think anyone who walks in,
really sees me as a human being.
They don't see that I fight social anxiety for a living,
or that I go through things too.
They don't care.
They don't want to care.
When they ask how I am,
they don't want an honest answer.
I wonder if they would smile,
or compliment me instead of insulting me,
if I weren't standing behind a counter,
taking orders and giving change.
Feb 3, 2018
Feb 3, 2018 at 5:00 PM UTC
Around 8:00 pm, I arrive
Post workout, sweat dried head
I drag myself to the counter and said my order
However, this time, was quite unlike any other
I tried to conjure a line that would strike up a conversation
But I'm too shy of a guy
So naturally, I began my evasion
My brain forces a fire inside
Because her eyes are sapphires
Dying for my supply of a vanity high
I'm just aiming to seem connected, corrected
So I selected my words with too much thought
And all I could collect was
"Your eyes are so beautiful"
Jul 1, 2017
Jul 1, 2017 at 4:49 AM UTC
Machine ground days
Somehow survived by clinging to precarious plans
Die for those.
For proles are stuck in a televised gleam
but I’m barred from distractions
I’m a man of action
Spring healing:
I found a new hope to get through the day
It has a name and it’s you
Workday: animistic curses
against people and their systems and products
except animals would escape forever
as soon as they open the cage
but we stay
The beastly gnashings of overworked merchandisers
for invisible self pocket stuffers
The competition's getting to us, comrades
I feel swindled out of my labor
I was pregnant
but they sold my child before
I woke up
Addressing the solipsism of my rehab circle:
I’m Kagey, and my life is hazy
but, blunted or no, let’s get this clear:
don’t trust your senses
and that goes for all my human peers
Body is a cage full of defenses
Still, I’m suspicious of reality
whether it’s façade society
or the wooden chair in front of me
Still, I enjoy the virtual scenery
I ain’t talking about on the T.V. or phone screen
I mean the willows, buildings, and faces
But all these mushy green acres are fakers
blobs without our eyesight
Still tho,
me and the universe are tight.
Sep 2, 2014
Sep 2, 2014 at 8:00 AM UTC
The entitled ones:
Snotty, stuck up, rude
Nasty, spoiled prudes
Your misery, their fun
Loosen up your buns, entitled ones
‘Cause I am in no mood
To harbor your attitude
And snooty snippy sayings sung
The desk between us that which divides
Does not right you to be snide
Entitled ones need not apply
Entitled are entitled nigh
The ones who earn entitlement
Are the ones who give respect
Possessors of this enlightenment
Such respect is what they’ll get
Treat your servers as you will with such level of pomposity
But understand that I abide by way of reciprocity
Mar 29, 2014
Mar 29, 2014 at 10:16 PM UTC