The yellow chair had a humble end overturned on the sidewalk in the rain having done time for twenty years of daily use the only words I had for it were to complain about my aching knees and back I will not shed tears though if it sits too long on the sidewalk I may have to perform a mercy killing of kindling or the green bin I found it in Berkeley at a yard sale from one of the labs I guess supporting future Nobel candidates and vaccine developers or an astronomer who looked into the pitch of the night sky and mused “Aren’t we so lucky?” while imagining sentient life looking back at us from magnanimous distance

Robert Detman has published nationally and internationally, poetry, fiction, and essays in over fifty literary journals, including Akashic Books, the Antioch Review, New Orleans Review, The Smart Set, and The Southampton Review. His writing has been a finalist for the New Letters Literary Awards and nominated for the Best of the Net. More on his writing can be found at: robertmdetman.com