Praise the Grocery Worker

KATHERINE HOERTH 

May 24, 2020

named David, working on a Sunday morning,

loading bags of groceries into cars,

the careful way he handles loaves of bread,

cartons of eggs, and jugs of milk, the graceful

way he slings a case of beer up on his shoulders

as they ache, he carries it as though

it was the world. For now, it’s cool, but soon

he knows the sun will fire up and sweat

will river down his face like yesterday.

His chest, his only shield against what’s coming,

heaves beneath his scarlet cotton t-shirt.

He marches through the busy parking lot,

his feet already swelling from the toil

of the day although his shift will last

for hours and hours yet. He doesn’t care.

He has more important trials ahead,

like making sure my apples don’t get bruised.

While sitting in the safety of my car,

I wonder if he wears a smile beneath

that stained bandana covering his face.

His eyes reveal a kind of faith, not fear.

I know it’s not enough to keep him safe

from the goliath of a virus that he faces

every single moment of his shift, 

a stone of sanitizer in his pocket. 

KATHERINE HOERTH is an assistant professor of English at Lamar University and editor-in-chief of Lamar University Literary Press. In 2015, she won the Helen C. Smith Prize for the best book of poetry in Texas for Goddess Wears Cowboy Boots. Her work has been published in journals such as Valparaiso Review, Summerset Review, and Southwestern American Literature. In 2020, her fourth poetry collection, Borderland Mujeres, will be released by SFAU Press. The book is a bilingual collection of poetry and art created with poet Julieta Corpus and artist Corinne McCormack Whittemore. Katherine is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and lives in Beaumont.