Anthology for Listening Vol. I. CHOREOGRAPHY OF SOCIALISING LATE IN LIFE

CHOREOGRAPHY OF SOCIALISING LATE IN LIFE

By RANDI LINDHOLM HANSEN

Looking into their garden, I saw the set coffee table. Two red chairs, two blue chairs. An open kitchen door to a yellow house. Imagined joyful chatter among the two women facing the stream that marks the edge of the lawn, the edge of a privacy sphere. Imagined phrases of encouragement thrown into the air between the two men who are guarding the set coffee table during the absence of the women and from the absence of threat. With the women out of sight, the men turn to the rhododendrons. They stand like that, side by side, for a good twenty minutes. Hands crossed behind the back, one hand locking the wrist on the other. Perfect synchrony. Occasional pointing. Ahead. Upward. Uninterrupted admiration of the bush. The coffee is getting cold.