She can’t work

if the chair is there
she can’t think
if the clothes are dirty

she can’t visualize
turquoise water in Bermuda
white chickens or what can happen next

if food is sticking
to this morning’s dishes
she can’t work

if the chair is there
itchy leopard pattern
too large for the space

was an impulse buy
back when furniture was exciting
when a chair

could change her life
she can’t work
so she drags it out

from its living room corner
scrapes the hardwood floors
pushes it into the front garden

where it sinks into the soft wet dirt
freshly watered glistening with
half dead peonies

now the chair out there
a trampoline for squirrels
a home for shedding leaves

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