a liter of wine

a liter of wine

Some time ago, before Putin came to power and made Russia
into a modern state, many Russians came to Portugal, tried to find work
They were met with skepticism after years of propaganda about
Russia and communism had taken their toll
Little help was offered by the locals
Every night, when the supermarkets shut they waited for
the bins to be filled to find scraps of food, one gathers rats
went hungry for a while.
One uniformed security guard got the idea of pouring bleach
on the discarded food, rending it inedible
 When people in
the town heard of this outrage, people protested the guard lost his job.
The guard's, sadism made people look at the refugees with friendlier eyes
 and they got temporary jobs here and there.
In front of me, at the supermarket, he had bought a carton liter of white wine priced at ninety cent
Counting the coins in his shaky hands came to eighty cents; he looked crestfallen, the shame!
My thought was to be magnanimous and pay for his wine, but that would only make me feel good
 he humiliated
I slid a ten-cent coin on the counter and said,  Look, here is a forgotten coin
At the exit, he turned and nodded my way.
I know what it feels like to be in a strange town where no one knows your name.