Handcuffed for Selling Churros: Inside the World of Illegal Food Vendors —The New York Times, November 12, 2019
Salt and Tears
Tears of sweet
salty goodness
wrapped
in a 99 cent
pastry
served hot
on a cold
city corner
Tears of sour
salty numbness
wrapped
in a 99 dollar
fine
served hot
in a cold
city jail
Small Change
I’ll take three. Please,
keep the change.
Sweet, heavenly steam
on cheeks
as flaky pastry
with a hint
of cinnamon and sugar
melt in my mouth.
A small taste of heaven
on Earth, purchased
daily for a mere 99 cents.
Suffocating Fines
My simple
guilty pleasure,
her lifeline—dough for
milk, denim, rent—
silenced
with fines
that tally
a month’s worth
of churros and
violation of a permit
system
that permits no entry.
Seeking
a seat—if not
at the table—on the subway.
Jen Schneider is an educator, attorney, and writer. She lives, writes, and works in small spaces throughout Philadelphia. Her work appears in The Coil, The Popular Culture Studies Journal, unstamatic, Zingara Poetry Review, 42 Stories Anthology (forthcoming), Voices on the Move (forthcoming), Chaleur Magazine, LSE Review of Books, and other literary and scholarly journals.