the elevator doors open
on a small drama
my therapist stands
in front of his office door
rattling the knob
shaking the entire doorframe
vigorously
while three hinge pins
sit on the windowsill
and his bag sits on the floor
for a few seconds
I am confused
something is amiss
then I realize
he is trying to break in
to his own office
and I get the feeling
he’s been at it
for some time
he turns his back
on the offending door
and says “so,
what I like to do with clients
who are making a lot of progress
is hold a session outside
in the park”
speaking in that
‘really, I’m not making this shit up
as I go along’
kind of way
and I couldn’t help it
I laughed in his face
hysterically
as he kept shaking the door
thinking, perhaps
that the door would give up
declare him victorious
and collapse into dust
or maybe disappear
into the same alternate reality
where his keys are hiding
and into this little scene
walks a woman from another office
entering the elevator
looking askance
at two crazy people
disassembling a door
and she lets the elevator almost close
before calling out
“Is everything all right?”
which starts my laughter
all over again
eventually
he gives up
I stop laughing
and we walk to the park
where we sit on a bench
as children play around us
two boys tossing a beach ball
a girl bouncing past
on a pogo stick
and at first it is strange
to be so exposed to the world
open to the air and traffic
and people walking their dogs
but we talk quietly
and after a few minutes
our words fill the warm June air
and create a private space
around the park bench
and it really doesn’t feel
all that different
from sitting in his office
by the train
