Hilary Sideris

The Training

We rated ourselves on a scale

of one to five on how often

we asked for the person in

charge, found flesh-colored

blemish cover that matched

ours, how often we waited

in long lines, called the cops

or had them called on us,

then stood against the window-

less room’s walls holding our

numbers to our chests, highest

to lowest in a U-shaped line,

us facing them & all those ugly

chairs & tables in between.

Hilary Sideris is the author of Animals in English, poems in the voice of Temple Grandin, from Dos Madres Press.