It Came In Like That

In receiving, things arrive damaged sometimes.

A torn box.
A leaning skid.
Nothing worth stopping the day over.

Becky looks at it and says,
It came in like that.

Sometimes it did.
Sometimes it didn’t.

Once, in my department, I was throwing out warped lumber.
Becky walked by, looked at it, and said the same thing.

It obviously hadn’t come in like that.

That was the joke.

No lecture.
No blame.
Just a sentence and a smile.

Becky says it when work gets hard
and things don’t go perfectly.

It came in like that.