“Gimme candy,” said the Pakistani clerk
with a long silver and white ponytail
and thick lenses in plastic pink-blue frames
―a throwback to the 70s―
at the Port Authority newspaper/candy stand.
I looked at her quizzically
and then at the package of
Werther’s Original hard candies
that I gave her two dollars for,
waiting for change.
“Gimme candy, I scan,”
she said, this time more emphatically.
“Oh,” I said, and handed it over.
She returned the candy
with seventy cents change and receipt,
no thank you.