Photo by Artam Hoomat on Unsplash
he had no mask
so I had to tell him
to leave the shop
and leave he did
he went and waited outside
he waited for me to my finish my shift
he waited fucking hours
he jogged on the spot
and boxed his own shadow
he had his kids with him
two sons
it was a school day
but they weren’t in uniform
and they waited with him
for fucking hours
telling him “good swing, dad”
or “lead with the left”
as he showed them his jabs
the older kid had a phone
and he kept recording his dad
then panning across to the shop,
a director planning out each frame
sometimes he’d send the older one
to get water or food from other shops
and he’d give the phone to the younger one
you know,
in case I came out
and sometimes they’d both have to leave
because the younger one needed to go pee
and the nearest toilets were in the Costa
down the road
and his little brother couldn’t go there alone,
nutters everywhere these days
so in that instance
his older brother would take him
and the dad would keep hold of the phone
jogging on the spot
and glaring
like that it went
for fucking hours
and now it’s getting dark
now the kids sit on a bench
“phone’s dead,” the older one says
and the other one’s curled up like a cat
but the dad still stands there
no shadow left to box
legs too bent to jog
just glaring
lucky bastard clearly never heard of
forced overtime.
fucking hours of it.
Tanner has published 4 collections in 2 years. He's barely qualified for minimum wage and allergic to cheese, for God's sake.