He sat at a four-legged table,

which had one leg about two

inches shorter than the other

 

three. Of course, it leaned,

but not so much so that things

wouldn’t stay on it. His coffee

 

cup and dinner plate leaned

in the direction of the shorter

leg. They didn’t look complete-

 

ly comfortable leaning like that;

they had a precarious stillness.

The coffee in the cup angled

 

toward the lip and the food on

the plate slid slightly but held

as did the flat wear probably

 

because it rested on a cloth

napkin and didn’t slide easily.

His chair sat straight, so he

 

sat straight wondering if he

should lean in the direction

of his coffee cup and dinner

 

plate, but that would be awk-

ward sitting in a level chair.

He thought about getting a

 

saw and cutting one leg of

the chair two inches shorter

than the other three legs so

 

he could align with his meal,

but he wondered if then he

would fall over. Another

 

possibility would be to craft

a two-inch high piece of

wood to fit under the short

 

leg. Another would be to

skip the meal, get up from

the table and just walk away

 

hungry. And isn’t that always

the dilemma posed by this,

that or the other?