MONDAY: Across the Table

BY ROBERT P. BISHOP

Copyright is held by the author.

from me,
a bowl of cereal topped with
strawberries and blueberries
in front of you and
the newspaper open,
you read the events of yesterday.

I know this duet
of you and me in the morning
will end when one of us dies.

What then if I die first?
Will the vacant space on my side
of the table echo
with a silence
the rustle of the newspaper
cannot fill when you open it?
Will the vacancy be filled by another
who trades my plain fare
for something as fancy as
poached eggs on toasted English muffins
smoked oysters
champagne
and the music
of Cimarosa in the morning?
These are questions I can’t answer.
Instead I go for a walk
and watch the sun drive his chariot across
the blue of a new day.

3 comments
  1. As someone who is nearer the end than the beginning I appreciated your poem, especially:
    I know this duet
    of you and me in the morning

    The ‘duet’ gives the feel of a song being sung 🙂

  2. Hi Moira…
    Glad you appreciated Across the Table. Yes, I too am nearer the end than the beginning, which doesn’t thrill me all that much, but there it is.
    Kind regards…
    Robert

  3. Poignant and poetic. I loved it until ‘the sun drove his chariot’ took me out of that world into a long-ago world of school and ancient mythology. I wonder if it did that to anyone else?

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