The Chairs That No One Sits In

The Chairs That No One Sits In


You see them on porches and on lawns
down by the lakeside,
usually arranged in pairs
implying a couple

who might sit there and look out
at the water or the big shade trees.
The trouble is you never see anyone

sitting in these forlorn chairs
though at one time it must have seemed
a good place to stop
and do nothing for a while.

Sometimes there is a little table
between the chairs where no one
is resting a glass
or placing a book facedown.

It might be none of my business,
but it might be a good idea one day
for everyone who placed
those vacant chairs

on a veranda or a dock
to sit down in them
for the sake of remembering
whatever it was they thought deserved

to be viewed from two chairs
side by side with a table in between.
The clouds are high
and massive that day.

The woman looks up from her book.
The man takes a sip of his drink.
Then there is nothing
but the sound of their looking,

the lapping of lake water,
and a call of one bird
then another, cries of joy or warning—
it passes the time to wonder which.


Billy Collins

Posted over on Poetry Foundation