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  • Coach Flight Seatmate
  • J. Allyn Rosser (bio)

He holds the window, I the aisle.There's one armrest to allocate.The gold light falls upon my seat,not his. I read. He fidgets whilethe couple just behind us bickers—This guy would surely say she "bitches,"but her husband is a whiny pest.Just when I think they'll give it a rest,the flight attendant's beverage cartwhacks into my left arm, Jesus!Hey, his right arm has the windowto itself. Don't I too have a right?Just one armrest here between us,but his unbudging elbow's there.He's not much bigger than I am,and surely paid no higher fare.What casually tendered wilesent from the fragrant, charming isleof moi could possibly enticethis man to lighten up, relax,and melt that elbow's igloo ice?Unopenable silver packs of snacks?Ugh, his arm is thatched with hairthat sticks out, curls, and tickles whereI really need my arm to stretch.Perhaps if I began to retch. . . .What if there could be some briefexchange, a nod of understanding,then perhaps the arm might shift?This many hours before landing,I don't dare repair the rifthis hyper-hirsute arm has made;if we were to communicate, [End Page 227] he'd likely talk all red-eye night!Then where would my book's people be?In limbo to his elbowosity.At least the coffee's hot. And granted,we're on time, a nonstop flight . . .Still, I hunch my shoulder highto let him know he's wrong to sprawl.Yeah, right. He doesn't care at all.His good-ole-boy-club arm is plantedwhere mine ought to be, the way a statethat overrates its might will celebratethe wars it hasn't had to fight,unharmed as long as those squeezed outcan learn (I can't) to do without.Sorry! Did that spill on your arm? [End Page 228]

J. Allyn Rosser

J. Allyn Rosser's most recent book, Foiled Again, won the New Criterion Poetry Prize and was published by Ivan R. Dee in 2007. She is a recipient this year of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at Ohio University.

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