So I went to a magazine launch the other night which featured five readers, some did poetry and others read fiction. I feel like it's important to support my peers through attending such events, even though readings are not really my thing.
Anyway, if you've ever been to a reading, you know there's certain etiquette. If you can help it, don't enter the room as someone is reading because it's loud and distracting and takes away from their moment. Also, don't talk on your cell phone. You wouldn't do it in a movie theatre, so don't do it at a live performance where everyone is mostly silent. That kind of stuff.
But I had this weird moment where I went to the washroom at the start of someone's reading, effectively trapping myself in there until they were done because I feel like there is nothing ruder than flushing a toilet in the middle of someone's poetry. The reading was in a pretty small venue, and the washrooms were single person washrooms so I was concerned about the soundproofing. It was one of those "my awkward life" times when I left the washroom and there was a lineup, and people probably thought I had a bowel problem when really, I was just standing in there twiddling my thumbs and scrutinizing my hair in the mirror for ten minutes.
It would appear that poetry reading etiquette does not coincide with bathroom etiquette.
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