This piece was inspired by my waitress in a local diner

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The waitress tells me

the guys at the next table

did a runner.

Her boss is an asshole.

She'll have to pay for their meal.

And her parents are dead,

her sister's flunked out of community college

with a baby on the way

and her boyfriend in jail.

Neither of them have health insurance.

And she had to move from the

apartment she was living in.

The rent doubled in a year.

The place she's in now is closet size.

Where's her sister going to fit.

And what about when the baby comes.

And there's the hospital bills.

Her brother is next on the menu.

He's the one with the drug problem.

And her boss is always groping her.

Can't complain 'cause she'll just get fired

and she needs what little money it brings in

or she'll starve to death

if she don't freeze to death first.

And then there's the guys

who order big

and leave without paying.

All sympathetic

when she told them her story

but somewhere down the highway now,

making fun of all her problems.

I pay for my meal

as I always do.

I even leave a bigger tip than normal.

I'm full.

Her life is momentarily paid for.

By John Grey

From: United States