A journal.

i swear
thirteen times a day
some smart-ass jerk asks me why is there no R in your sign
so i stare them in the eyes
and i say

look
if there’s one thing i care about
one thing
it’s providing a good service
good products
to good people
and if there’s one thing i hate
it’s seeing people get ripped off
all spending their money
their hard-earned money
and getting less for it than they used to
it’s a shame
and it makes me angry
so angry

now you know and i know
that there’s an R out in that sign
but are you going to see me spend all kinds of time and money
to repair some dumb sign
that you and i both know what it’s saying?
because i could

but then you see
i’d have to raise my prices
to probably, a dollar five, dollar six

signs are not cheap, amigo

i am not
not
going to become one of those people
pissing money down the disposal
like it’s all plentiful
because it isn’t

not where i grew up anyway

i think they feel pretty bad after that
so they stop asking

i guess that’d be okay
if they ever came back

Photo by Jeff Young