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23rd August, 2024

Friday Poem – ‘First Job’ by Bryony Littlefair

Close up photo of stacked, chocolate coins wrapped in shiny golden foil.

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘First Job’ by Bryony Littlefair from her debut collection Escape Room.

First job I worked at Boots on Thursday evenings, stacking shower gels in unnatural colours, telling blurry-looking women where to find the ibuprofen, but usually I’d be on the downstairs till, where a customer came every twenty minutes grabbing a salad for a late dinner, a stick of deodorant or baby wipes. They’d meet my eyes so briefly. Boredom spread like liquid magnolia soap. Once I picked up the magazine they kept by the tills – Health and Beauty, on which a smiling white woman played volleyball on the beach. Suzanne, who was neither unkind nor stupid, only tired and harassed, said Don’t read that while you’re on the till. There’s no one here, I said, looking around, but I did as she asked and put it away feeling a twinge of annoyance, but a strange, building feeling too not unlike excitement – not because I refused, but because I was growing an understanding of what was being asked of me, and I turned that new knowledge over in my closed mouth, like a chocolate coin.

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Related Books

Escape Room

Bryony Littlefair

Buy now