I don’t sit in chairs like chairs would like me to
Or rather, I don’t sit in chairs how the designer of the chair would like me to
My limbs are crossed or splayed or folded
My weight is draped asymmetrically
I am always curled or stretched
Or upside down
And most chairs I sit in I can feel my way is not what they intended
They passive-aggressively tell me so
I twist in an attempt to make my body comfortable
Knowing there is only so much comfort that comes with a chair designed like chairs are
(because, oddly, most chairs are designed the same way as each other)
Designed for people who are maybe shaped like me but don’t sit like me
Maybe even designed for a person who does not actually exist
But that was made up as the ideal chair-sitter
One who keeps their arms and legs and torso perfectly still and straight and obedient
I wonder:
what about the people that aren't shaped very much like
this imaginary unrealistic ideal chair-sitter?
I wonder about who made these chairs
What they’d impose on my physical form or assume about the way I sit
My size and shape
What I need to be comfortable
Where I want my back to be held
I wonder how chairs would be created
If they had the sitter in mind
And not the room in which the chair is placed.