A President Doesn’t

A president doesn’t buy coffee from an all night gas station or get a milk card punched for that free 1/2 gallon or return the empties.

A president doesn’t reheat yesterday’s left over pasta dish.

A president doesn’t pay his rent in three installments with a postal money order and a seventy dollar late fee. A president doesn’t eat cold cereal for dinner.

A president doesn’t choose between gas for the car or paying the electric bill. A president doesn’t feel the hostility from the back of the line when the teller rings up the kid’s birthday cake in a separate cash transaction after paying for groceries with a WIC card.

A president doesn’t have to wear the same clothes twice or three times in a week. A president doesn’t get to the library and do his work in 20 minute time slots. A president doesn’t wake up in a bedroom with peeling wallpaper.

A president doesn’t rely on public transportation. A president doesn’t pick up the change off the sidewalk and wonder what to do with it when it turns out to be foreign.

A president doesn’t walk alone through a neighborhood at night, key ends protruding between fingers. A president doesn’t hide cash under the mattress.

A president doesn’t decide when the kids are too sick to put off going to the doctor or have to take a day off work to bring them. A president doesn’t have to figure out how to pay for the medicine.

A president doesn’t have to fix the roof, fix the door, change the oil, top off the wiper fluid, take out the trash or shovel the snow.

A president doesn’t have to stand in storm water up to the knees. A president doesn’t have to flee a wild fire in the middle of the night. A president doesn’t suffer from power outages.

A president doesn’t cut the last donut into four pieces and pass them all out. A president doesn’t stand in line for forty-five minutes. A president doesn’t wonder if the noise under the hood will make getting to work on time a problem.

A president just doesn’t.