...Skilled Labor...

Such talent.

Such dexterity.

To handle so much

with such ease.

He's the man in charge of

all the shopping carts at

the local big chain food mart.

Is this what they call

"unskilled labor"?

Are they sure they

defined it properly?

He has a very special strap

with equally special hooks,

which he uses to lash

all the carts together.

It's a sophisticated strap.

He had to learn how to use it.

At this particular food mart,

not all carts are the same;

not all slip together in precision.

He has to know this.

Gathering all like carts,

he slams them together,

front to rear, front to rear.

He has to know this.

With his special strap,

he now lashes them together

like the parking lot cowboy he is.

Strays gathered, he now pulls them

out of their temporary corral

and begins herding them

towards the store's doors.

It's not just pushing.

There's a certain balletic grace.

The initial push

requires a lift of the left leg

which appears to be

the same six inches each time.

The carts all buckle

and twist together under stress.

The back wheels of the last cart

lift off the ground,

and oddly enough, so do those

on the front of the lead cart.

He is now propelling the

multi-jointed, multi-wheeled,

chromed steel exoskeleton

of a giant shopping centipede.

He has to know this.

He steers it down a long line

of four wheel vehicles and

past a multitude of mass consumers

who, by their facial expressions,

have failed to fathom

the amount of wheels this

one lone individual is in control of.

His expertise will never be appreciated.

It's the one part of his job

he has yet to learn.

Until then,

he's the luckiest man 

in the world.

Ó97 Jack David Hubbell