A Brief History of Sitting Down by John Dorroh

1.
It was always the Chinese that did great things
like inventing gunpowder and using fetal
mice suspended in tea for blood diseases.
With all that activity, they grew weary and
began to sit down: mats, pads, clumps of grass,
low centers of gravity to help mouse tea
work its wonders.

2.
Always looking up, they played with the idea
of elevating their bodies up off the ground.
Not much. About the depth of a history book.
A revolution ensued. Probably not documented,
long forgotten like the breath of a dragonfly.

3.
Perhaps the writers who described the Tower
of Babel borrowed the idea of going higher and
higher, up to the sun, the clouds, the moon.
Form doesn’t always follow function; some-
times it’s a wild hair, a fluke. Hence the chair.

4.
The split, the great argument: to compromise the stand.
Dad liked the chair for his lower back but only with plenty
of padding. He played Solitaire there at the kitchen table
in a wooden chair at 4:00 AM, drinking Folgers, stopping
for an occasional smoke.

5.
I like my morning chair, bright blue in the early
sun, a hot mug of tea or Eight-O’Clock in my
hand, a dog or two at my feet. The cats have
eaten. The bees have returned from wherever
it is that they go at night. Heat radiates
from the window which needs to be raised.
I go to gather new squash, thinking about
gunpowder and Chinese teas which heal
my body and patch my aching soul.

John Dorroh (“JD”) taught high school science for a long time and changed energies a few years ago, working with teachers and school districts who are interested in how reading and writing can be used to learn content. He had about 30 science education diddies (who reads that stuff, right?) published, a book of flash-fiction (99 Words), a book of “white-trash nekkid poetry”, and several poems in both print and digital publications. He loves to travel, invent new dishes, and hang out with dogs and cats.

Photo credit: Sabine Schulte