Occupational Hazards

Occupational Hazards

Working graveyard shift at a 7-11
in Seattle, making minimum
everything, when I got robbed

by a guy with a pistol. Now
I was thinking as it happened
thinking the gun ain't loaded

everything is under control
this guy doesn't want to hurt me
he understands I ain't got much

more than he does. I got
an old car, high rent, even
the same dark skin as his

and my best shirt is the one
I have to wear to work
with 7-11 stitched on my chest.

But the robber takes me back
into the cooler, makes me
kneel on the cold floor

with my hands on my head/ my back turned to him/ and I wet
my pants when he puts the pistol/ up against my skull/I keep
thinking/ I'm going to die/ between the broken eggs/ and the
expired milk/ and I keep thinking/ I'll make a move/ on the
robber/ and tear the gun from him/ and I keep thinking/ I'd
rather die fighting/ and/ I'd rather die brave and crazy/

but the robber laughs, runs
out into the store, out
of the rest of my life

and leaves me to the police
and their sketch artist.
It takes hours to describe

the robber, detail by detail--
the color of his hair, eyes, skin
his height, weight, age

all approximated, estimated.
After all that work
the sketch artist asks

if I've remembered everything
perfectly, if I'm sure
I've described the robber

exactly as he looked, exactly
as he lived and breathed
and I tell the sketch artist

"Yes, I could never forget"
and then he shows me his sketch,
shows me my memory, my vision

and the face on the page
is the same face I always see
when I look in my mirror

in those last seconds
before I walk out the door
and leave home for work.


Sherman Alexie.........from The First Indian On The Moon