Poem of the Day: “Parking Girl” by Anne Carly Abad, Frequent Contributor and Poet of the Week

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Parking Girl” by Anne Carly Abad, a Songs of Eretz Frequent Contributor and this week’s Poet of the Week.  The poet’s biography may be found in the “About Our Editor & Frequent Contributors” section.

Parking Girl
Anne Carly Abad

Vehicles line up for a spot.

Slim, boxy, emblemed or blank
no one has a say
when parking's full
everyone waits, wonders--

tiny booth in the heat
keeper of gates, when will you open?

The lady inside smiles
when a driver demands his ticket--

a spot has just been freed--

she waves his access and,
as thanks, he sucks air through puckered lips,
the closest she gets to a lusty kiss.

Shift ends, lines dissipate,
the roads lie worn and quiet.

No one vies for the parking girl's attention
as she plods through shanty town alleys
to crouch into a tricycle ride home.

Poet's Notes:  A service job, a waiting job, the kind of patience involved in it must be a form of meditation or a fruit of imagination. What goes into an 8-hour shift intrigues me as much as my inability to stay put.