The Chair Near a Window

Same situation as "Dreamscapes"--I had to submit 10 poems for my portfolio and I found myself short, so I took an old poem and made it better. This poem is a bit depressing, but true in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chair Near a Window

 

 

An old man sits

In a chair near a window,

Reflecting on love long lost.

Moisture meanders through

Crevices on his cheek,

Collecting at the lines around the mouth

That once knew the taste of her body.

Twenty years since she left him to

His distraught memories.

 

Amber light filters through drab curtains

Hanging wearily in his peripheral.

The sun falls behind skeletal trees,

Sending shadows inching across the street

Into his mind, blotting out details

That he once cherished—her laughter, radiance,

The way her body rose to meet his

As they became one at the heat of climax.

God’s cruel prank on the dying.

 

As the shadows smother the day,

Amber giving way to ebony,

He clutches the portrait that sits in his lap

Of his goddess in her ivory gown,

Her smile frozen in a time now past.

No one visits the old man anymore.

They leave him to sit

In a chair near a window,

All alone.

 

-Aaron Stewart

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

My friend, this is the best damned poem I've read in a good while. You look young in your picture, but these powerful, emotional words seem to have come from many years experience. I know the man of whom you speak.