Bill Costley

ROBBERIES TEND TO GO UP

“Robberies tend to go up with the Holidays.”

- Claudia Wong, KTVU-2 (FOX) TV
reporting from El Cerrito CA


I work in the poshest mall in the South Bay,
busy all day & nite, open to midnite weekends.
It calls its Information booth a Conciergerie;
as you walk around you can often easily hear
many languages spoken, often in groups of 3,
often young, apparently affluent enuf to buy
or at least shop as tho they were, at top shops:
an Ecco shoe store recently opened there -
I already have Ecco dress-shoes & sandals,
but really prefer my Mephistos. All are used,
bought in thrift-shops in Milpitas or Wayne MI.
I think of them as previously well broken-in.
When I began my job, months ago, there was
a robbery around suppertime in the parking-lot:
2 suburban women were relieved of their purses
& everything they’d just bought. Poetic, is’nit?
Soon, the mall's rent-a-cops pointlessly searched
the Borders book-store I work in for the robbers! .

(13 DEC 06, Santa Clara CA)