Working Class Blues

I love those women who tap their fingers,
waiting waiting
how long must we be waiters or waitresses?

I remember working as a waiter in a Japanese Restaurant
in Winston-Salem, NC?

A Vietnamese cook is doing his best
to serve his customers and they are laughing
and then they call him a "chink."

A Japanese waitress always ask me to "Excuse You."
She's on her cellphone,
so busy.

There's a man who owns a Golf Course
who tips high,
and the Blacks never tip
why should they anyway.

my feet hurt.
I feel cold
someone has just died at sea
and then I watch the News,
JFK Jr. has just died.

I met Jacqueline Kennedy once,
she was a real Medusa.
Jacqueline Kennedy loved Joseph Campbell's writing
and Gregory Nagy's teaching.

I told her I wanted to be a writer.
She said you're going to suffer alot.

There's a nice Japanese girl up front
and she thinks I act like a Jew.
I think I'll take that as a compliment.

My heart softens when I think about her
as it softens
when I think about
all those cute Massachusettes girls working in
grocery shops, coffee houses etc.

my heart is shaped like a piggy bank
and holds currencies of emotion,
silvery streaks of generosity,
but at last, I am emotionally bankrupt.

Working at the Trattoria in Medford,
how sad the Italians seem,
low tippers and day trippers
chirping the day and night away,
so many overweight,
then there's a French troupe and I have a bad
tendency to stare because I like to observe
people's behavior.
it's rude to stare.
and the jealousy that fuels a French man's pride.
but I am only observing the features of her face,
the glow about her
that bodhissatva quality
and wishing to be fed by it as sunflowers are fed
by the sun.

I hardly see any Asians here. They don't want me
to wear an earring so I don't.

The food is good, the cook's a cool Irish guy
I think,
he's mad because someone wanted to put A1 sauce
on his prize steak.

The male owner reminds me of Robert De Niro.
The female owner accuses me of stealing various things
and of coming drunk to work.

So.
My drink gets me through the day.

I leave. and I think, is this the way Italy is?