Straightening Up

Kenneth Purscell

A place for everything
and everything laid out
in its sequential place:
this is the very simple,
highly complicated
rule of stock.
This means the gum
I hang on this peg here
should never be the gum
with consequential
variations which I should
hang on that peg there.
Just so with all the blankets,
all the trikes,
all the mirrors and light bulbs
and every
thing has its place.

They never stay.

The moment that my back is
turned the children stray.

The bra amidst
the movies amongst
the cupcake tins amidst
the feminine supplies .

Look! There it blows!
The tissue nestled deep
behind the antifreeze.

The customers, I’m sure,
abet the chaos. Most times
it looks like plain abandonment,
though now and then
aggression rears its head.
I’m sure the Bear of Little Brain
did not of its own will climb
upon the barbecue
and close the lid. Shoppers, though,
might make it happen. Ban them
and the order would re-store
itself, though not, of course,
the store itself.

Perhaps
a native entropy
will always gently
undermine the rule,
the effort, all the work
of organization
no matter what
we try. Maybe marbles
always work their strange organic way
through diet aids until they reach
the promised land of greeting
cards. And nothing we might
say or do would ever
avail to stop them.

Kenneth Purscell is a retired retail cashier, customer service representative, adjunct professor, and pastor–and if you add up all those salaries, you understand how he came to work retail jobs for KMart and for Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in Wise, Virginia (same physical store, even). He has accidentally deflated Santa Claus, had a case of cast iron skillets fall on his head, and mopped unspeakable substances that trailed 150 feet through the store. Despite all this, he found a perverse pleasure in assisting so many customers, and he even once went ten consecutive shifts with a perfect count in the till. He and his wife currently live in the south suburbs of Chicago.