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I Think I Should Give Up Exercise

By Elizabeth Marchitti

I think I have given up exercise
unless you count the trip from the living room
where I sit, feet up, reading, to the kitchen
where my new washer/dryer hums
doing its job with grace
Silence tells me the dryer has stopped
It's time to fold the laundry.

I stand to do that, make a neat pile
of towels and t-shirts, return
to my lounge chair and my novel, feet up

I think I have given up exercise
unless you count trips
to J.C. Penney's, Barnes & Noble,
or the Totowa Public Library,
unless you count the long walk
down the aisle at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

Or the short walk, after John has parked the car,
to the Montclair Public Library
or the Hamilton Club in Paterson,
to attend poetry readings.
I think I have given up exercise,
unless you count how happily I jump up
and walk to the podium
to read at various Open Mikes.

Soon I will swim
in the heated indoor pool
at the Bird-In-Hand Family Inn
in Amish Country, Pennsylvania
This is so easy, so much fun.
Can it be called exercise?

In June I will swim
in the outdoor heated pool
at the Beachcomber Resort
In Avalon, Three Mile Island.
This is too easy
to be called exercise.

I will exercise my brain
by reading Murakami,
Alice Hoffman
and the poems of those
poets I love.

It's time to slow down,
Relax, to grow old
Disgracefully.