April Bell: 4 Poems

My nearest AT&T store

I am wondering where is the beauty in this place
The lights are somehow both bright and dim
The door opens, Ashland Avenue crashes in
I feel sedated, not in a fun way

A flight attendant, Spirit
Her phone’s internet is not working,
she says, she is getting divorced, but
I notice her rings suit her

Lupe removes my SIM card, she asks if my shoes
Have an alpaca or a llama on them
I tell her I don’t know because I thrifted them
We decide they are alpacas

Because alpacas have the softest fur
I love my alpaca socks, I mention
Lupe says she is from Peru so she has
alpaca everything

Lupe can’t fix the flight attendant’s phone
I think she needs a new one
She leaves, no resolution
I’m not sure what I’d do in her place

Willow walks in
I am 90% sure she said Willow
She is here to return something
She pushes the wrong door on her way out

A couple who has been here for a while
Leave emptyhanded, everyone is busy
They don’t seem too put down though
They say fourth time’s the charm

My phone just needed its SIM card removed
I go home relieved,
I am a weekend delivery driver
I need my phone

0% of the delivery fee goes to your driver

My store charges a $3.49 fee for
delivery using my car, my insurance
They cover gas but still
I’m risking life, limb, and car for $12 an hour

For your sandwich and you can’t tip $1?
I just got yelled at by some dude for
turning left on Ashland and Jackson
And you can’t tip $1?

Store policy is if you leave gratuity blank
You have to sign for your order
The best no tips say "Leave in lobby"
Not today, Satan

The time a no tip "Leave in lobby" order
didn’t answer her phone or her intercom
I drew a heart around the 0.00
She called the store, I got called out, worth it

My favorite customers name themselves
I LIKE HOW YOUR HANDS FEEL, LASER
BEAM MIND CONTROL, WHO ARE YOU,
PINKINIE PIENE, I LOVE MAYO, AND
SUPREME LEADER, I’d vote for you

Because you tipped 31%
when a 10% tip puts you in the top 10%
Heck for 31% if you asked nicely enough
I’d feed your sandwich to you

To the theater

Off to the theater!
In a fancy dress and sparkly tights, carrying
my first purse, the perfect size for
a penlight and backup batteries

We are at the box office, here to
pick up the promised script, three times
we were assured
it would be ready

No script, they thought
we were tomorrow
not today and now
there's no time

Home
in tears,
pajamas and a pizza
hoping I’ll forget

I don't forget the play
I fumbled with the script
Loose pages fell to the stage
I remember thinking of snow,
Wishing the pages to become snowflakes, to melt

Paper doesn’t melt but,
that night, my heart did.

The actor whose monologue I'd interrupted,
He flourished the pages back to me

My speech therapist

"The world is your oyster," she said
Not knowing what she meant
I imagined myself an oyster,
waiting to pearl

Pearls are made of nacre
oysters secrete to surround irritants
like seaweed, sand, or even
a chunk of the oyster itself

Too often the world decries
deaf children nuisances, irritants
But would sooner expel us
than turn us into pearls.

My speech therapist taught me
I am my own oyster
Yet to pearl, I never told her
I took a chunk of her

April Bell, PhD, is a deaf cancer biologist at Northwestern University in Chicago. Born and raised in Chicago, she holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Life Sciences from Northwestern University. She is also an aspiring writer, eager to see her name in print. When she is not writing or science-ing, she can be found on a couch, with a cat (or two), a friend (or three), the latest greatest TV show, and snacks. Always snacks.