Essential Worker
Queen of the sandwich bar
she moves no financial indices,
wears blue overalls without red braces.
She has planned every movement,
her rapid questions in optimum order
‘eat in?’ ‘flora on your roll?’
‘jalapenos?’ ‘salad with dressing?’
Each sandwich solidly constructed,
mayo binds fillings together,
carefully layered cucumber
will not casually drop out,
her hands all speed and capability.
First to succumb to a new virus going round,
her absence marked by long queues
and harassed co-workers, plaintive
questions about her likely return.
Ruth Aylett teaches and researches robotics in Edinburgh and has been known to read poems with a robot. Her pamphlets Pretty in Pink (4Word) and Queen of Infinite Space (Maytree) were published in 2021. For more see http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth