you whisper at the drive-thru like your order 

is the kind of secret you keep from even your best 

of friends. The employee inside, of course, 

cannot hear you. You must speak louder. 

The car behind you will hear that everything 

you order comes from the value menu 

and, you are sure, will be able to infer 

that the sauce packets will feed you those 

last few days until your SNAP card gets 

loaded again. It couldn’t be that you 

just love the beefy Fritos burrito and spicy 

potato soft taco that much. It couldn’t 

even be that the people in the car behind 

you are arguing about the water bill while 

they listen to Alanis Morrissette and couldn’t 

care less about what the deal is with the car 

in front of them. Still, your heart beats faster 

and you prepare to lift your voice in prayer.