Double Life
In the Christmas vacation I work two jobs:
an early shift at the sorting office;
a late shift at a restaurant.
In my daybreak life I become an expert
on London postcodes. At night I learn
to balance things on my wrists – three plates, or you’re fired.
Mornings are predictable – tea o’clock, the men shout
every hour. We’re told to scribble out unfranked stamps –
I doodle robins and holly.
The evenings, though. We’re banned
from writing down orders – just remember what they said!
Worst of all, dessert is announced by a pageant of girls
showing off platters with hastily learnt descriptions.
One night, I have to offer spotted dick and custard
to a hundred tipsy diners.
Lucy Dixcart is a Kent-based writer. Her poems have appeared in a number of magazines and she was a finalist in the 2021 Brotherton Poetry Prize. Her pamphlet, Faint, was published in 2020.