Economica

The waiter in the expensive restaurant
gets tipped nine dollars for pouring a glass of wine.
The waitress in the hash joint
gets a dollar twenty-five for delivering

three plates of scrambled eggs with hash browns,
toast, Canadian bacon, biscuits and gravy,
plus medium OJs for two and coffee for everyone.

This is the condition of which Marx spoke,
which has forged the deformed world,
to which you are obedient

—as the bill arrives,
and the credit card is run,
and the receipt sticks out its little tongue

and you feel that small frisson which comes
from being ever so much on top of it
—as in the foyer of the restaurant, André 

wishes you a very good evening, sir, indeed,
and softly clicks the heels of his black shoes;
as in the diner, with no one watching,

the waitress scrubs at a stain on the tabletop
and laughs at something
nobody can hear but her.

Tony Hoagland, “Economica” from Turn Up the Ocean. Copyright © 2022 by the Estate of Tony Hoagland. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minn., graywolfpress.org.