Chilling Out

... not ...

Seeing Red

I've just settled into place

on the floor, ready to stretch,

release, and calm

my inner voice

when I notice I've forgotten

again to put that infuriating

Lululemon tote bag away,

out of sight.

Ironically, I brought the new

leggings I'm wearing

home from the mall in

that very bag.

It's bright red, covered with words,

and it's smack in front of me,

spouting platitudes and

ready to rumble.

I could struggle up from the mat

to move the bag but I don't,

believing I can ignore it by

noticing my breath,

but I can't quit rereading the line that says

jealousy works the opposite way you want it to,

a sentence so misconstructed it

can't be parsed

and here goes, now I'm seeing red,

feeling hot in the face, blood pressure

rising -- hardly on the path to

relaxing my mind.

I want to shift my gaze elsewhere,

want to imagine a hypnotic voice

softly intone a gentle "Let it go...

let it go..."

but it's already too late, the words

on the bag are proclaiming that

...friends are more important

than money...

and I take the bait, muttering

out loud, "who needs

a cheesy shopping bag to

point that out?"

..visualize your eventual demise,

retorts the bag, it can have

an amazing effect on how you live

in this moment

as if a reminder like that could

salvage a moment like this,

in which I'm just about

ready to scream

when the ding of the timer sounds

and the session's over, so I hoist myself up,

determined that before I forget, I'll at least

move that bag.

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