The Red Light

The screen said ITEM NOT FOUND

and I could feel everyone behind me.

I tried it again.

The light blinked red.

The barcode on the yogurt was fine—

no scratch, no damage,

just the way barcodes look.

But the scanner wouldn't read it.

Wouldn't recognize it.

Wouldn't let it exist.

The beep got louder.

Or maybe I was just paying more attention.

A cashier came over,

tired in the way that people get

when they've been standing in one place

too long.

She looked at the yogurt.

She looked at me.

She took it and scanned it from her register

and it worked immediately.

Of course it worked.

It was me that wasn't working.

She handed it back.

Everyone was waiting.

The line had grown while I stood there

not knowing how to hold a yogurt,

not knowing how to exist

in public space,

not knowing how to be

the kind of person a machine could read.

I left without buying anything else.

Just the yogurt.

Just the thing that almost defeated me.