Are You Still Working on That

the waitress said. I’m not working, the customer said. The waitress repeated the question. I’m not working, I’m eating, the customer said. Later that night the waitress, counting her tips, related this exchange to the others. One woman, a waiter said, when I asked was she done eating, looked at me as though I’d suggested she was a pig at the trough. I just say, Are you finished? But, said the waitress, when I ask that, people think I’m rushing them. Same with Are you done with that? Can I take that? not to mention Can I wrap that up for you? added another. The busboy, who’d been waiting for his 10%, explained how, tired of people demanding he Take this away, please, pretends he doesn’t speak English. They all agreed there’s no way to keep every customer happy. Although, thinking about it, the bartender said, filling the ice wells, to ask were they still working bestowed a level of dignity on it. Camaraderie, said the line cook, a recovering addict, wiping down his station. Workers among workers, struggling together through this vast inscrutable universe.

About the Poem:

“I was at a casual pizza restaurant when the exchange that opens this poem occurred. I watched my friend (‘the customer’) press her point, despite the waitress’s discomfort, insisting this was ‘about language.’ I said nothing. Walking home, I replayed the scene, getting angrier. I rarely write at night, but I scribbled a version of this in my notebook. Third person gave me—a former waitress—some distance. It became less personal, less about anger at my friend. As I got interested in making something, my outrage turned to curiosity which helped me find the language and story under the actual event.”

About the Poet:

Donna Masini’s new book of poems, Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For? (W.W. Norton and Co.) will be out in Spring 2026. Her other books include 4:30 Movie, Turning to Fiction, That Kind of Danger, and About Yvonne, a novel. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, APR, Paris Review, et al. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a Pushcart Prize, she lives in NYC  teaches at Hunter College.

Used by permission of the author.