Maria Jastrzebska
Fridays
The big shop –
I helped carry the bags
which left my hands stinging,
red stripes across the palms.
Sometimes she’d leave me
by the check-out,
while she dashed back
for something she’d forgotten.
As the queue inched forward
I’d stop breathing:
what if she didn’t get back in time
what would I say to the cashier.
But this time we were together
when another woman slipped in front of us.
My mother wasn’t going to let that happen
complained loudly.
The woman shouted back:
Bloody foreigners go back where you came from
and everyone looked down into their baskets
till we stepped back.
Bladdifor aynerr.
Later the grown-ups would pass this word
between them like a novelty,
scoffing – something to get used to
like soggy sausages or smog.
But I refused to go there again.
So my mother went on her own
each week carrying all the bags home.
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