you've already paid for this

The battered woman
enters the all-night gas station/grocery store
to buy marloros for her husband
The attendant sees
the man in the car, tense and angry
The attendant sees
the fitfully sleeping infant in the stroller

The attendant looks at the woman
and thinks,
"you've already paid for this."
Then she looks at the opening eyes
of the child
which seem to reply,

well, haven't we all