-after the event- DRAFT!

after the event,

people began to rise slowly from their chairs,

sorting their belongings for the ride home.

standing behind the back row of chairs,I watched with interest

a heavy-set woman performing this triage of outer garment selection,

beginning with items to be worn closest to her body to those worn outside:

first the sweater, then scarf, then coat, and lastly a large purse,

holding bare necessities and duplicates, just in case.

out of nowhere, a skinny man, 40 or so, walked across the stage,

eventually yelling into the standing microphone:

“There Are Pamphlets On The Table

 In The Corridor On Your Way Out”!

and then he pointed the way to the table

standing in the exit corridor against the back wall,

with four short stacks of pamphlets on top,
and in front of them, others were fanned-out
with a keen sense of imaginative pamphlet table-setting.

It's one of those long, cheaply veneered leg-folders

usually found at neighborhood testimonials for the presentation

of awards.

(earlier, I'd noticed about twenty of these tables,

(legs folded) leaning against a wall in an otherwise empty room,

before entering the hall to pick the chair with the most character.)

the guy on the stage has become increasingly animated
and his head is now tilted sternly, while jabbing his exposed 
index finger into the air emphasizing the way to the pamphlets,

and of course, his authority to do such a thing.

and now for the goings on at the folding table in the corridor:

maybe I’ll hang around to see if anyone takes a pamphlet.

“pardon me, ma'am. but what in hell possessed you to take that one”?