Discerning Customer

She stands at the counter
holding two plastic meter cards
and a packet of gum
and a twenty.

“Forty Bensons,” she says
with a nod at the cigarette stand
“and a packet of king-sized rizlas.”

She looks at the total displayed on the till
in black-against-green LEDs
“and five on the gas,” she says,
“and four on the ‘leccy,
and a sherbet dip
for the babby’s tea.”