Credit: Brauner/Gaertner
Date: 2004
Type: Studio
Length: 7:54
Frankfurt Northend around five p.m
set foot into Tengelmann at the corner Glauburgstrasse
the floor is slippery as ice and covered with brown slime
and it stinks
hectically dozens of grubby Northenders
pushing towardsthe checkout-counter
as if today is their last chance for shopping
and at the checkout-counter she sits again
this silly old cow with the thick glasses
that costs me roughly twenty minutes extra
but my fridge is empty
so I’m stepping in but I should look out
that I don’t get a mouldy Creme-Fraiche
best-by-date they don’t know here
“Idiots, all of them, who want to screw me up”
I murmur to myself then I’ve just remembered
I still need cheese
and I’m shuddering at the thought
of the old bag at the cheese counter
her piercing eyes hit me
between two Tilsiter-Cheese-wheels and a ton of Cream-Cheese
again she looks as if she wants to snatch
the most disgustings of all Romadur-cheeses
to squeeze it out in my face ‘til I drop dead
wouldn’t it be better to take the pre-packed cheese
NO
“I would like to have Gouda, äh, five slices and thin cut please”
her eyes are bloodshot and her foul-smelling breath
is snorting out of her mouth towards me
then she moves
to make life easier for her spine she’s leaning back
and in the same moment she smashes
the heavy - five kilogram - Gouda-Cheese-lump next to the cheese cutting-machine she rolls her eyes, they go for her mate by the way
(as if I’m the nastiest costumer in Frankfurt)
wheezing she asked me: “What more can I do for you”
while I’m here, unceremoniously I’m asking for five slices of Emmental-Cheese “Thin sliced please”
her sweat is dribbling from her forehead right into the goods on display
next to the Emmental-Cheese
“no thank you very much”
I’m grabbing these five slices of Emmental-Cheese
and stampede out of the place
and again I get a funny feeling about it
that I had handled a Tengelmann employee
like a second class human being
I just wanted to have cheese
thin cut please
from the old bag at the cheese counter
