Kathryn Petruccelli

Kathryn Petruccelli is a freelance writer living in Monterey with her three-year-old son, patient husband, and disgruntled cat. Her work has appeared in The Anthology of Monterey Bay Poets, The Homestead Review, http://mamazine.com, http://literarymama.com, and other publications. She remembers fondly a job she once had standing in a grocery store as a giant bag of popcorn. Kathryn records her weary poet-mama rants at http://www.fetalpositions.blogspot.com

 

To the Girl Who Hates Her Job at the Bakery

You have perfected your craft:
the sneer that passes as a smile,
the disdainful flip of your hair, and,
in case someone still thought you cared,
the bored whine in your voice and the
patronizing snort you emit
when the old man ordering an apple turnover
casts at you a friendly pun.
Why do you stand there listless and glassy-eyed?
The sticky buns, the croissants –
put them on the plates with the fluted edges.
The coffee – point to the self-serve dispensers
at the end of the counter.
The cinnamon rolls have done you no harm;
the snickerdoodles, willing as beagle pups in their quiet pyramid, waiting for your slender hand to lift them,
earn only your wicked indifference.
There are people who spend their days wrestling
jackhammers, tending the dying.
Maybe it’s that all your friends
are at the football game.
Maybe it’s your tip jar – empty
and it’s almost noon.
Maybe giving away sugar all day
leaves you sour.
Or it could be something else:
The criss-cross of lines
pressed into the peanutbutter cookies remind you
of the scars the cigarettes left on your skin,
the hungry mouths of the vodka bottles
you held to your wrist.
Perhaps you know precisely
what your work is,
and you just can’t bear it.

 

c2006 Kathryn Petrocelli