the chair

Do you know what happened to that seat behind you?

That one, where it felt warmth on a cold february dawn

Never knowing it was the last time it would hear this song.

I call it, the chair of worlds

Before me, it held someone else’s universe

And now, it held mine 

A gatekeeper of time and carnations

In it, lives unfurled 

Sunlight had filled that morning, a rare occurrence for this city

It cracked and yolked, pale and frail

Against the wooden desk and the caged windows 

Even the dirt in that rugged room looked like it had worth 

Our silence broken by hurried whispers and pages flapping

Futures at the precipice of a cliff with a psychic fall 

Where to, why now, whom to, what now?

They came and went, unattended to the quaint 

I too knew, I couldn’t wait

Not for glory, nor for something that’d wane

But for a life, I had no choice but to begin.

I sat there, in that chair, longer than needed

My chest ached and ached, till it faded into me

Ashamed at my pity, frowned at my false might

With hope for light, I stared ahead at you

And took you in

Just the way I did all those years

For this was all I needed to thaw from within

I stood up, and thanked it for hosting me

Through all my days

I thanked you

Even though you had walked away

I thanked that room

For teaching me the worth of pain

I thanked the halls, for telling me I’m worth my name.

My soul felt heavy, as I stared at the quiet, dimly lit room

It’s last occupant exited, hanging up those shoes

That moment, that time, those conversations, those smiles.

Now it finds residence, only in these forlorn mind looms

The chair remembers, it has scars and an aged heart

It too remembers us, the lone griever, apart from my dismantled mind

With a comforting thought, it told me to be well 

To appreciate the universe I had crafted with it, my sole playmate 

To make the pain, the love, worth it.

To not miss it so much, yet remember it’s weight

So the chair stayed there, in a room of stilled time

Eighty-four moons later, a new world sat in it. 

And so, for you, it began again.