Supermarket Diaries

For more than a decade I have been a supermarket cashier seeing customers for five minutes at a time as they pass through my line. At best they are polite to me; at worst they look right through me or take out their frustrations on me. And in return I have lost faith in humanity and compassion for them. I wrote these poems to try to regain that compassion ― to find a way to think about them as individuals with troubles of their own.Mild-mannered grocery store employee by day Nina Robins is a well-known performance poet who has twice performed at the National Poetry Slam. Her poetry has been described as 'exceptionally appealing' 'heartbreakingly honest' and 'subversively deep for work so overtly entertaining.' - Taylor Mali author of What Teachers Make