Can you think of a more boring and uncomfortable place to spend a couple of hours than an auto repair shop waiting room? The room smells like rubber and fumes. The coffee tastes like rubber and fumes. The television, usually set to the news channel I love to hate, makes me fume. To my mind, there’s nothing pleasant about an auto repair shop waiting room … but wait. Could it be an opportunity for creativity?
I wondered that one Saturday afternoon in 2011, while sitting on a hard plastic chair in a Brake Master’s waiting room, sandwiched between the coffee pot and a rubber tire display. Desperate to escape this situation but unable to do so, since my only method of transportation was currently up on a lift, I did something rarely done in an auto repair shop waiting room: I wrote poetry.
Specifically, I challenged myself to write three-line poems about random objects that I saw while sitting there. Here’s what I came up with. They might not be very good, but they passed the time. You might want to try this method of escape next time you’re in an uncomfortable situation. (Brake) drum roll, please!
FLOOR I walk through life as if there is a floor and a ceiling and something of substance in between. TELEVISION The woman in the box prattles on, oblivious thinking she's all that matters in this room I accept this, knowing it is true. FAN Fans are useful in the tropics where orchids spring from steamy earth and bodies cling to gauzy shirts. SANDALS She slipped off her sandals and left them by the door hoping they'd still be there when it was time to leave the cage. You never knew about a hungry lion. COFFEE POT If a kitchen had a double agent, it would be the coffee pot keeping things lively while watching your every morning move. BATHROOM Bathrooms should be outrageous spaces. A woman I know has the best one. It's purple and is decorated with boobs. MAGAZINE The glossy magazine calls to me with parted lips and false eyelashes but I resist and choose reality, reluctantly. CHAIR I sit here and await the verdict when all I asked for was an oil change and some honesty.
loristory 