Checkmate

I don’t believe in love until I hear your name
and feel the pit in my stomach drop to my knees.
I am the only one who's ever known you
and you–me.

I don’t believe in love until I wake from a dream
where I wished your new lover would protect her heart.
I told her I know what you do with those–
you fill them with ease.

I don’t believe in love until I hear myself say,
“If you are not careful, you’ll end up like me.”
I had her by the shoulders,
but you took her by the hand.

I don’t believe in love until I check to see
that my soul still feels like your mate.
I try to remember the bad times too,
but they slip through the cracks in the sofa
that couldn’t hold us forever.

I don’t believe in love until I hear your name
and feel the pit in my stomach drop to my knees.
I am the only one who's ever known you
and you–me.

The Customer is always right

The customer is right when
the customer takes the wrong drink,
the customer drinks out of said drink,
the customer does not like the drink that was not made for them.
The customer wants a new drink, the one the customer had ordered.

Make the customer the drink.
Make the other customer the drink the first customer took.
Offer both customers a free drink card.
Apologize for the inconvenience.

The customer is right when
the customer's child wanders around the store unsupervised,
the customer's child picks up a bag of bang snaps,
the customer's child drops said bag of bang snaps which then make loud noises which draw
everyone’s attention to the customer's child.
The customer's child cries because the noise scared the customer's child when the customer's
child dropped the bag of bang snaps on the floor while the customer left the customer's child
unsupervised.

Clean up the bang snaps which now cover three aisles.
Offer the customer's child a free slinky to make the customer's child stop crying and make up for
the traumatic moment that occurred when the customer's child was left unsupervised.
Apologize for the inconvenience.

The customer is right when
the customer orders a freshly baked personal pizza at the height of the lunch rush,
the customer asks for the bacon to be extra crispy,
the customer asks for there it be no foam in the cappuccino,
the customer asks how much longer the pizza will be after ten minutes,
the customer has an Amish theater show that starts in half an hour.
the customer asks for the pizza to-go,
the customer leaves right as the pizza is coming out of the oven.
The customer leaves $2.50 on the table for the $3 cappuccino along with a strongly worded yelp
review.

Reply to the review with an apology and offer the customer a free dessert because, after all,
They were right.

Jaylan Miller started her life in Miami, Florida, and found herself in the Midwest at age 15. She stuck around and is now earning an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College remotely while working as a reporter in Marion, Indiana. She enjoys wearing facemasks with the hope of moving to Boston someday soon.