Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Everything
2
Three customers
(
poetry
)
by
jessicaj
Sat Mar 25 2017 at 15:20:45
Last night I was
scheduled to close
Before I arrived I knew it would be
A very long night
I drank some
rose tea
and a smoothie
Later
dark chocolate
kept me company
The woman who approached me
Wore so much makeup
I had trouble taking her seriously
Her daughter had cool blonde hair
Pained crystal eyes
Flawless skin, and terrible
anxiety
I gave her mother my number
Hugged her, and watched them leave
Thinking of
someone else
I knew
Who could use a mother like that.
Customer 2 was trying on hand lotion
She had big blue eyes and dry fair skin
We discussed the scent of
patchouli
Which led us to the skin care section
We were testing toners before I noticed
A teenaged guy hanging around
He was trying to treat his invisible
acne
Most products are designed for women
But he said he didn't care about packaging
It was then that he told me
About his mother who suffers
She has
MS
Then I realized
Skincare was the superficial reason
He was there
.
I could have hugged him
But
distance is safe
As he was leaving he told me
That he would fill out a survey
If the store had one for awesome people
The second woman returned
To discuss pricing
This led to the topic of battered women
At one point we were both in tears
Her father and brothers were abusive
Her mother tells her it must be nice
To have married the banker's son
And to have enough money
To buy whatever she wants
Growing up she was called
A fat stupid lazy cunt
Her brother almost killed her
She called the cops
Before
the trigger
was pulled
That makes her the bad guy
I fell into bed last night
But before that I spoke with my friend
The drunk
After an alcohol free week he bought some wine
And lied to me about not returning to his old habits
It occurred to me
That I'm in
an abusive relationship
with him
Since I'm scared
To stop interacting.
Monday is my day off
I'm going to make some appointments
Call my old therapist
Start
knitting
, take walks, pray, get in to see her.
My life is better than ever,
But hearing that woman say
she had to promise her husband
Not to kill herself
Prompted me
To reach out
Since the two halves of me
Desperately want to be whole.
Not cut out for the Play-Doh confessional
The right tool for the job
Sleepless days, working nights
art
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