Another Day, Another Dollar Poem by Richard G Berg

Puffing the sails
Of a July afternoon towards
Evening, bargain
Thoughts found and lost

I asked the cashier, bagging
My bedlinen how
She was doing:

Another day another dollar

She bubbled
A tanned, soap-scrubbed smile
Somewhere between the Caspian Sea
And a loud television screen.

The department store blinked,
My feet felt pebbles on a pulsing
River-bed. America bloated
Over the building like Dali's watch-face, melting.

Mumbled alternatives to buck the dollar and dime
Blossomed on my lips;
I offered a tuppence of change
Her smile struck back, sunburned.

At least there is our health
To be thankful
For, she bleated

With that, my transaction
Was over.

I walked towards the crockery,
Pans and knives
Where couples drift and sift
Through what they need and want
Scissoring what they have.

I looked at my receipt,
The four pounds in change
That should have been mine
Smirked inside her till.

Another day another dollar.

Richard G Berg
July 2025