gets an apron and nametag.

She rolls pennies. The pie case turns
the color of the moon. She fills
coffee cups and sugar boxes.

She fills half-full ketchup bottles
from half-empty so customers believe
they have new natural tomatoes
boiled down and slipped into glass necks

“Hey honey,” they say before they order burgers
so neatly she might be a virgin
who sleeps under a field of stars
and soothes cows for the dinner table.

-Julie Babcock, Decomp Magazine

Tagged: Big Boy Ohio, Big Boy Ohio poem, Decomp Magazine, Julie Babcock, Julie Babcock poem, poetry, waitress, waitress poem, waitressing