Andrew John | + Follow Poet |
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Now and Then

A friend sat there
forty years past -
in that chair.
And thirty years, and twenty.

Was here, sitting there -
in that chair.
Was then - and five years ago.
Even one. Just a month? A week?

Hard to keep track
after so much absence -
and a little presence.
Here and there.

An email now and then.
Hmm, then, but not now.
That chair claims then and now,
claims a space, then and now.

Can a space say
all it once would say?
My memory holds so much but, well,
that space: so little. Just a chair now.


(5 Feb 2023)

Copyright © Andrew John | Year Posted 2023

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Lady Labyrinth Date: 3/1/2023 2:13:00 AM I wonder sometimes, if even though, the chair is empty, there is / are people unseen sitting around listening. You know, ghosts. I have come to the conclusion, that perhaps sometimes, the people we wished were sitting in that chair, aren't all they were cracked up to being. Unless they were so so loved beyond measure and their merits were worthy of that measure, and perhaps taken before their time (or not), that they could never ever be replaced. Login to Reply Andrew John Date: 3/8/2023 2:54:00 AM Thank you so much, LL, for your kind comments. I don't believe in ghosts, but, hey!, weird things do happen to one's brain. Lady Labyrinth Date: 3/1/2023 2:13:00 AM "Can a space say all it once would say?" Yes, probably more than you would want to hear, but you'd listen, after all that had transpired before.