You wait at the POST OFFICE
You wait at the BANK
You wait at the SUPERMARKET
You wait at the LUNCHEONETTE
You wait at the CANDYSTORE
You wait at the LAUNDRAMAT
You wait at the CHECK CASHING PLACE
Here you demand instant service
and cuss the clerk
HAVE A NICE DAY

Rockaway Avenue station token booth (the clerk’s dry erase board) on the
IRT 3 Train; Brownsville, Brooklyn.

(Originally published in A Different Drummer magazine, spring, 1993.)