From the book And Don’t Come Back, published in 2021.
In Harmony
I watch them. First
there is the short woman at the counter
looking straight up at the clerk.
The ceiling lights opaque white the lenses of her glasses
leaving the shapes her mouth make and the tilt of her head
to frame the question I am too far away to hear. Then
there is the clerk. She leans forward
elbows on the counter. Confiding.
They laugh.
1/20/20
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I feel this perspective; an outside observer, we’re given little context of what went on between them and yet we still want to know more about this little moment, and then it passes by. Love this poem for what it brings out. ❤
Thank you. I am interested in how people act in these little moments that are ordinary and happen all the time, but I think they are what hold society together.
I can imagine this scene. I wonder if they knew each other?
I think not. It’s a composite of times that I have observed people in this situation, and if one person is even a little outgoing or reaching out, the other responds, it seems to me. Even if they don’t know each other they treat each other as if for this little moment, they are tied together in some way beyond the transaction. It makes me try harder to reach out myself (especially these days when pleasantness can be hard to come by or I admit it, hard to produce)
Yes, I know what you mean.