Gloria is new on the job

        she’s having a rough day

as she heads for the bathroom—

        the white graffiti stained walls

look back at her as she sits on the pot

        Her legs are bleeding— she reaches

between them with french-fry fingers

        to remove her brown-red bloody

filthy tampon that is expired

        after 4 hours of clogging her wound—

Suddenly she hears her manager

        yelling at her to

"Hurry up! we have lots’ of customers!"

        Gloria tries to hurry, but

notices that the bathroom is out of soap—

        She runs to the freezer out of

desperation and grabs the death burgers

        from the shelf with her blood-stained

hands and throws them in the microwave,

        she fries fries cooks burgers and

makes salads for all the hungry

        tourists that come to gawk at the wooden

rollercoaster—

Mission Beach Summer 1999