Supermarket Diaries von Nina Belén Robins

For more than a decade, I have been a supermarket cashier, seeing customers for five minutes at a time as they pass through my line. At best, they are polite to me; at worst, they look right through me or take out their frustrations on me. And, in return, I have lost faith in humanity, and compassion for them. I wrote these poems to try to regain that compassion ¿ to find a way to think about them as individuals with troubles of their own. "Mild-mannered grocery store employee by day, Nina Robins is a well-known performance poet who has twice performed at the National Poetry Slam. Her poetry has been described as 'exceptionally appealing,' 'heartbreakingly honest,' and 'subversively deep for work so overtly entertaining.' - Taylor Mali, author of "What Teachers Make"

Nina Belén Robins is a three-time National Slam Poet, and author of the books of poetry, "Supermarket Diaries" and "A Bed With My Name On It." She spent much of her life in various institutions, but has finally broken free and lives with her husband and cats, working in the bakery department of a supermarket. She writes whenever possible, and wants to help normalize and destigmatize mental illness as best she can.