Some of the best poems you'll read - Perigee

"Monday Morning at McDonald's, Federalsburg, Maryland"
by Adam Tavel
Winston Koch wore his green cardigan
even when the heat from the fryers
made the restaurant clammy
and the windows fogged,
flanked by the December air
and dragonbreath of grease.
Between small sips of coffee
he watched the construction workers
queue like ants on a melted popsicle.
He liked their Carhartt coats
and dirty overalls, the small
blotches of week-old paint and
caulk crusted on their sweatshirts.
37 years of delivering packages
in wet socks taught him everything
there was to know about work,
what it meant to palm
small biscuits of sausage
and gooey egg between stops.
The Daily Times sat
neatly folded on his table, but
he left the crosswords blank
to admire Monique on the register,
how her hands uncrumpled small bills
like cloth napkins full of glass.
Behind her a small
army reset timers, stocked trays,
slid yellow rappers down a narrow
ramp. Winston prayed
if there were such things as ghosts
that Rose's was sitting with him
taking it all in.
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