RockPaperPoem

 

Garage Sale Chair

by Guinotte Wise

 

A chair, old wooden kitchen chair, layers of paint flaking;
you can hear it scraping back on the linoleum, the man of
the house clearing his throat with much the same sound,
50 years ago, as he leaves to finish chores. It sits in the
grass, probably one leg shorter than the others but still
fine for resting, whittling, leaning back against the shed.
Two fifty. Two will take it. It displays a certain character,
a quiet dignity, sitting apart from the jars of lag bolts and
rusty washers, loud and laughing children’s clothes that
hang on a sagging line, restless in the breeze.


Guinotte Wise writes and welds steel sculpture on a farm in southeast Kansas. His short story collection, Night Train, Cold Beer, won publication by a university press (H. Palmer Award, Pecan Grove Press, 2013) and enough money to fix the soffits. Six more books since, a Best of the Net and five-time Pushcart nominee, his fiction, essays and poetry have been published in numerous literary journals including Atticus, The MacGuffin, Southern Humanities Review, Rattle and The American Journal of Poetry. His wife has an honest job in the city and drives 100 miles a day to keep it. wisesculpture.com/.


 

 

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