There was only one chair. On the back of the chair was a light blue jacket and on the seat of the chair was a styrofoam coffee cup. 6:30 in the morning, at the YMCA indoor track. There were two ladies and one couple walking around the track in cirlces. Who put their coffee cup on the seat? I want to sit down. How insensitive. What were they thinking.
I looked at the people walking to see who looked like a coffee drinker.
I composed haiku poems as I walked around the track. 18 laps equals one mile.
only one chair
toss the coffee and jacket
sitting on the floor
Then I saw a woman wearing stretch polyester pants limp towards the chair. She took a sip from the cup, then set it down in the middle of the chair and continued to walk. There was a hook for her jacket, and a window ledge for her coffee, she could have used. Perhaps she is like an animal that marks their territory by spraying. She had marked off the chair as her domain with her coffee and jacket. I didn’t really want to sit down, but I was irritated that she wasn’t sharing. Now, I know she didn’t irritate me, I chose to be irritated. And I could have asked her to move her coffee so I could sit down.
I kept walking in circles counting syllables on my fingers, 5-7-5.
Then she left.
I kept walking.