The Restaurant


It is a public place,
As can be seen by the vast numbers
Of tables, chairs,
The empty self-serve food bar.

I am sitting alone,
The rows of empty wooden seats
Adorn a bland cream coloured table.
A small group sits apart, up towards the end.

My thoughts wander.
A memory of a memory past.
A hallucination of another place, another time
Superimposed within my vision.

Here I am, alone in an empty room.
People wander in, one by one.
There is a rush, the room quickly fills.
Every table is filled.

All, apart from mine.
They, the newcomers, avoid it.
Why? What have I done?
Still they will not sit.

One glances my way. Ocean blue eyes.
Innocence. Possibility. Eyes lock in understanding.
The one moves my way.
Passes.

My thoughts again wander.
I am sitting alone, the small group gone.
Rows of silent chairs sit unmoved by the noiseless atmosphere.
I am sitting alone, waiting.