An Empty Seat

I took my first big trip alone this year -- with work to Sydney and Singapore. I love exploration but the first time, the specter of doing it alone hit me like a ton of bricks and all of a sudden it took on a different meaning. The trip led to lots of introspection, and over a fantastic French dinner in Sydney's Darlinghurst neighborhood, I jotted down these thoughts:

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"The Empty Seat"

it was an empty seat

it stared with woeful verve
as long as i stayed

it sat still as the stone
that framed the room

it echoed the murmurs
that reverberated as simultaneously none
and yet at once coherent conversation

it blankly withered away time
as fork clanked from plate to teeth

it did not know the lovely tastes
that screamed with exuberant reverence at every bite

it did not care either

it did not ask, smile, pause, chuckle, answer

it was an empty seat,
mocking the delight it willfully witnessed

it was a seat,
i tried to ignore