You who work the tills and stock the shelves

You who work the tills and stock the shelves in streams and waves of grocery shopping crowds,
you who show up each day of longer weeks,, you who
work a viral wrench in the guts of the tectonic shifts now playing out on planetary scales:
you who live all this for minimum wage
do so in the company of nurses and orderlies, 

you have become first responders to the homelife realities of those
in need of certainties beyond yours to place in our palms like change

To you, who bag the comfort of common togetherness food
to you who did not sign up for this when you took the job,
to you who play hero to the anxious crowd on your modest stages:

to you I say we appreciate the ordinary efficiencies
of your one customer at a time service
your small mercies to us in our turn.

We convey ourselves into and out of your lives, we pass you in aisles breaking down boxes,                     
we recognize some of you from times before. We leave you to the uneasy crowd. 

So to stockers who keep stocking, and to you whose tills ring on; time blends
a balm placed in passing for our open wound being nursed
all the long shifts of your working.

For now, let those who shop agree to stay away until near normal need returns us
to you workplaces, until then, we will isolate ourselves with your daily courage,
and say that we will back your wage demands when new normal comes.