Up to Sixth

First published in Contemporary Haibun Online 14:1, April 2018. Originally written in September of 2010.

The sign in the elevator allows 3,500 pounds or 21 persons. So I guess that makes a person 167 pounds. What’s that, about 76 kilograms? That makes me more than a person. But what if 21 of me got in the elevator? What would happen then? Could we even fit? The elevator is only six feet square. That would be cozy. And we wouldn’t have professional pushers with white gloves to jam us all in like they do with Japanese commuter trains. So maybe that would never happen. But what if it did? Would the elevator cable snap, sending us crashing down, all 21 of us oversized persons, proving gravity?

another birthday—

again my mother

goes on about diet