It was a just a shop job
I never planned to
Set down roots.
The tills bored me
And small talk
Was never natural to me.
So I cut a corner
As did my colleague my age.
Not all the time.
Probably when I
Had to serve a customer
Or speaking to someone.
The manager really
Did not have to
Turn it into a life lesson
A teenage me thought.
Be a manager here?
My colleague would
Have suited it.
I had other plans.
The underlying message
Was that we needed
To believe in ourselves.
He knew we were not lazy.
My coach most likely
Told him I was.
At my longest job,
Hiding out the
Back and not having
To face the public
Was a bit of a reprieve
When your confidence
Had been shattered.
Like a piece of you
Is missing and you
Cannot find it.
And I was running
Out of options.
Trying to find work
Where nobody knew me.
So I was on a quest.
I saved my energy
And read more than
I ever did at school.
Novel after novel.
Crime, romance, memoirs,
Classics, fiction.
I touched on sci-fi.
But not horror.
I'd seen enough movies.
I watched horror. Never read.
It's hard to find
A good horror film.