Checkout Charlie
Do those corporates who design supermarket checkouts,
ever actually shop?
(I suspect not)
Today’s grocery Jenga upon the tiny landing slab,
is again suspended by the automated discovery of Items Unexpected.
I reverse my precarious tower of supermarket selections,
and retreat to the sole human operated checkout.
We eye each other suspiciously,
through a sheet of once temporary Perspex,
(now a permanent fixture)
I hump my overloaded basket,
up onto the checkout,
and slide my choices through the gap beneath.
We must share this thin strip of real estate.
A bargain is struck, without a word.
The basket is perched precariously,
on the opposition side of this 38th Parallel.
A narrow checkout Charlie over which we must negotiate.
I perch the edge of my shopping bag on my occupied territory
and we squeeze items under the transparent shield, like contraband.
A prisoner exchange,
unsure which of us
is the incarcerated.