The Garden Chair

In 2001, I saw a naturally distressed, green-painted antique chair at a garage sale and happily paid the asking price of five dollars. When we got home, I set it in the garden and it quickly became a favorite perch for our kitten, Baby, to observe the comings and goings in the garden.

The chair has been outside winter and summer all these years. There are numerous screws added in an attempt to hold it together and the green paint has vanished, along with the old seat. Baby doesn’t care that he sits on old and patched wood. He doesn’t mind the list to the left or that his throne has sunk several inches. Thyme and strawberries mix beneath him as he rules his little kingdom.

Baby has grown into an old sovereign, a bit mangy and bedraggled, similar to the chair and his mistress. Still, the three of us slog on together, through the snowy, rainy, sunny seasons of the garden.