i don’t care about the new chanel store, but my wife does, she joins the line, starts chatting about shoes with the woman in front of her, i sit, put on a timer for 20 minutes, close my eyes, breathe, shoppers pass by, most probably don’t notice the quiet guy with hands on lap, a few likely wonder why i’m not staring at a screen, at instagram/tiktok/google news, but i don’t care, i hear snippets of conversation, where is the hermes store?, i don’t actually like sabrina carpenter, but mostly i just inhale, exhale, feel the warmth of a september day, pretend i’m not surrounded by consumerism, minutes move, my iphone alarm goes off, i stand up, walk over to j.crew.
Daniel W. Polk 