Karen J Weyant

What You Learned as a Waitress

The key to balancing plates is all

in the angle of arms, elbows and hands.

 

Stepping in a puddle of Pepsi means

a sticky sole of a sneaker for the whole shift.

 

Customers prefer Ranch dressing over ketchup.

A dropped plate that clatters and breaks stills

 

a whole restaurant. Hungry people often act

the same way that people who are in pain.

 

The old men who meet over coffee,

will call you honey, but are harmless.

 

The man in a suit and tie who works

at the courthouse, calls you sweetie, is not.

 

A single father who comes in every Saturday

will order a cheeseburger with the works.

 

His 10-year-old son orders the same,

but leaves half of the meal on his plate.

 

A family of five in the corner booth

will leave a mess in spite of the mother’s

 

effort to clean up after her kids.

The thin teen sitting with them

 

will only order a salad and eat a few pieces

of lettuce, pushing tomatoes and cucumbers

 

around on the plate, so it looks like she ate something.

She knows her mother is too busy to notice.

 

Karen J Weyant's poems have been published in Chautauqua, Harpur Palate, Lake Effect, Rattle, Slipstream and Trailer Park Quarterly.  She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and a full-length collection, Avoiding the Rapture published by Riot in Your Throat press. She lives, reads, and writes in northern Pennsylvania.