The Empty Chair

Those hypnotic specks of dust,
Reflecting in the blades of evening sun
Stream through her blinds, and mind,
Grip her last moments of mental energy,
Drag her eyes and roll them around her sockets,
Rocking her head to and fro.
Unbuttoning her blouse to cool
She kicks off her heels,
And despondently lets out her hair....

Moments before she had trudged in,
Tossed her keys on the table,
Lost her handbag on the floor, somewhere,
And threw her body into the couch.

And now, in one final moment
Of lonely self-castigation,
She flings her head back while
Sighing through her open mouth
Of unbelief as her mind
Empties involuntarily.

Only at 3pm he had come to her office
Sat in the chair,
That empty chair, in the afternoon sun.
Unknowingly, he then snatched
Her last reserves of will,
As if he had latched onto her
With a six foot pole and held her
Suspended, transfixed and immobilised.

Cat wanders in, confidently,
And claims his place on her lap,
Demanding her attention,
As only cats can.
Its tail brushes her face as
Her hand lifts unconsciously, and strokes,
But she has no idea --
Just as she never knew his name.

Depressingly she stamps her foot,
Freaks out the cat and gets her leg
Clawed as it scrambles for any other place.
A grimace of pain seizes her --
she flexed involuntarily.
Thoughts of another pair of nylons wasted
Away in the shadow of her memory
Of his face, his smile, his voice … him.


She has no understanding
Of what it was, if it was anything.
Nor why he had such an affect.
He had introduced himself and
She had heard but did not hear.
Now she could not even remember
Why he was there. Only that he was
That was enough --
Enough to turn her mind
Into every other thing but rational.

In a fugue state
She collapses, sideways.
Head becomes buried in a pillow,
And her top lip gets caught
At an awkward angle,
like a hooked fish.
Stretching, her feet find
The table with a dull thud.
Cat is no where to be seen.

The light, as it snares the look
Of an otherwise expressionless stare,
Continues playing its mind games
Highlighting the chair,
That empty chair,
Across the room.
And the dust did its thing too,
As dust does,
With just one shining speck.
Yet still,
She could not remember his name.