NICHOLAS EMEIGH
  • Home
  • Writing
    • Poetry - Entire Collection >
      • Poems A-M >
        • A >
          • 4 a.m. in Beantown
          • About The Way You Look In This Photo
          • Airborne
          • All About Me
          • Amazing Motherhood
          • An Ant's Heartbeat
          • Angry, Angrier, Angriest
          • Antiquated
          • Art of Coasting, The
          • Autumn Leaves
        • B >
          • Bad Touches
          • Baggage
          • Bar Lighting
          • Behold This Love I've Laid to Rest
          • Benevolent God, A
          • Birth of a Generation
          • Blowing Smoke
          • Blue Balloon
          • Bohemians
          • Breakfast
          • Burn
          • Busy Museum
        • C >
          • Calico Waves
          • Carried
          • Caulk
          • Chapbook
          • Cocoon
          • Cold
          • Contortionist, The
          • Conundrum
          • Courage In Faith
          • Cowboys and Kings
        • D-E >
          • Daytime Nightmares
          • Doe
          • Don't Tell
          • Down Deep
          • Dreamer, The
          • Dreams Of A Real Life
          • Easter '94-'14
          • Easy Street Wasn't Paved
          • End of the World, The
          • Ever-Autumn Town
          • Everyone
        • F-G >
          • Family
          • Fear of Heights
          • First Fall Harvest
          • Footprints
          • Forecasting
          • Fragile
          • Friends
          • Fucked
          • Funeral For Me and You, A
          • Grandparents Day
          • Grounding Exercise
          • Growing Up
        • H-J >
          • Haiku on Working
          • Half The Man
          • Heaven
          • High Wire Walker
          • Him
          • Homestead
          • I Am Cold Turkey
          • If
          • Imaginary Friends
          • Instant Safety: Add Water & Stir
          • Interview
          • Iridescence
          • I Still Dream of You
          • It's A Funny Thing Being Lonely
          • Just Answering a Question
        • K-M >
          • The Key
          • King of Marigolds
          • Lost Souls
          • Love As Such
          • Love Song
          • Lube
          • Machine Dreams
          • A Makeshift Prayer
          • Maniac
          • Manifesto
          • Masks
          • Maybe Account, The
          • May Twenty Third
          • Money
          • Mother's Day
          • Muse
          • Musing on a Hunt
          • My Mother's Eyes
      • Poems N-Z >
        • N-O >
          • Napster Revolt
          • Nest
          • New Year
          • Noël Coward's Party
          • No Fun
          • Not Cool
          • Not Crazy
          • Old Love
          • On Norman Mailer's Death
        • P-Q >
          • Painter Man
          • Party People
          • Perfume
          • Personal Wealth
          • Philadelphia
          • Pity Party
          • Plan, A
          • Please Leave the Memories
          • Politics
          • Prankster
          • Present Company Excluded
          • Pride It Was And Dignity
          • Puppy Love
          • Quack
        • R >
          • Radar
          • Rated "R"
          • Real Pitfalls
          • Reconciliation
          • Respect For Elders
          • Résumé
          • Resurrection
          • Return To Light From Darkness
          • Risk
        • S >
          • Save A Place For Me
          • Sex, Fast.
          • Shell
          • She Doesn't Hold a Candle
          • Signature
          • Simple Man, A
          • Spirit Specialist
          • Spring
          • Still Life With Butter Dish
          • Studio System
          • Sup
          • The Surgeon
        • T >
          • Teacher
          • Thank God, It Was Only A Dream
          • These Voices
          • They
          • They Say I'm Crazy
          • This Doesn't Rhyme
          • A Time Before Dying
          • Toxic Friends
          • Trademark
          • Treadmill
        • U >
          • Under Bed Delivery
          • Underground Reverie
          • An Understanding
          • Unearthly
          • Untitled
          • Untitled 2
          • Untitled People
          • Untitled Sadness
          • Utopian Melodrama
        • V-Z >
          • Verse For A Death Chamber
          • Volley
          • War
          • Warming Up To Change
          • Weathered Hands
          • We the Depressed
          • What It's Like to Look at Me
          • What Would You Have Done With Me?
          • Who Can Say?
          • You, Me, and He
          • The Young Narcissists
    • SoundCloud Poetry Readings
    • YouTube Poetry Readings

Home » Writing Portfolio » Entire Collection » A B C D-E F-G H-J K-M N-O P-Q R S T U V-Z » Greatest Hits

Save A Place For Me

Sitting alone at an off-season sidewalk table
of some trendy New York coffee house
with a crisp suit and newly polished shoes,
a man looks at his watch that had stopped years ago.

His eyebrows lower with his shoulders,
countenance taken from the front burner
and placed on the rear where the ebullition is lessened
to relieve his satin-neglected lips of their dutiful smiling
and his mind of the random act of hoping.

He gently whispers words that are undetected
by the business women with running shoes,
poets, politicians, paupers,
or men wearing pin-striped suits and blinders.

The age old trees enclosed by metal grates
seem to sing his tired refrain,
and he looks up with the utmost gratitude
only to find that their limbs are just marionettes
animated by the cool breath of the wind.

He looks down again at his coffee--
no sweetener, just as the doctor had advised--
and talks to it humbly as if it had the sense,
or as if it even cared to listen.

After watching this poor soul for some time
from a rusted iron table not far from his,
I heard him say, "To whom it may concern:
save a place for me, I'll be home soon."

© 2013 Nicholas Emeigh

Read by the Author


SoundCloud Reading

Part of the group "Record-A-Poem," and part of the Playlist "The Poetry of Nicholas Emeigh" which includes 40+ other poems.

Notes: This poem was written in 1999 with my grandfather in mind.  It was published in 'Dreamshadows' in 2000.  'Dreamshadows' is my high school's poetry magazine.

©
The unique works displayed on the pages herein are © 1997-2013 Nicholas Emeigh. Use is restricted.

Home | Blog | Design Portfolios | Graphic Design | Cake Design | Event Design | Writing Portfolio | Poetry | About Me | Favorite Quotes | Favorite Poems | My Mom, My Angel | More Angels | Art Portfolio | Photography | Links | Site Updates | Contact
Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Writing
    • Poetry - Entire Collection >
      • Poems A-M >
        • A >
          • 4 a.m. in Beantown
          • About The Way You Look In This Photo
          • Airborne
          • All About Me
          • Amazing Motherhood
          • An Ant's Heartbeat
          • Angry, Angrier, Angriest
          • Antiquated
          • Art of Coasting, The
          • Autumn Leaves
        • B >
          • Bad Touches
          • Baggage
          • Bar Lighting
          • Behold This Love I've Laid to Rest
          • Benevolent God, A
          • Birth of a Generation
          • Blowing Smoke
          • Blue Balloon
          • Bohemians
          • Breakfast
          • Burn
          • Busy Museum
        • C >
          • Calico Waves
          • Carried
          • Caulk
          • Chapbook
          • Cocoon
          • Cold
          • Contortionist, The
          • Conundrum
          • Courage In Faith
          • Cowboys and Kings
        • D-E >
          • Daytime Nightmares
          • Doe
          • Don't Tell
          • Down Deep
          • Dreamer, The
          • Dreams Of A Real Life
          • Easter '94-'14
          • Easy Street Wasn't Paved
          • End of the World, The
          • Ever-Autumn Town
          • Everyone
        • F-G >
          • Family
          • Fear of Heights
          • First Fall Harvest
          • Footprints
          • Forecasting
          • Fragile
          • Friends
          • Fucked
          • Funeral For Me and You, A
          • Grandparents Day
          • Grounding Exercise
          • Growing Up
        • H-J >
          • Haiku on Working
          • Half The Man
          • Heaven
          • High Wire Walker
          • Him
          • Homestead
          • I Am Cold Turkey
          • If
          • Imaginary Friends
          • Instant Safety: Add Water & Stir
          • Interview
          • Iridescence
          • I Still Dream of You
          • It's A Funny Thing Being Lonely
          • Just Answering a Question
        • K-M >
          • The Key
          • King of Marigolds
          • Lost Souls
          • Love As Such
          • Love Song
          • Lube
          • Machine Dreams
          • A Makeshift Prayer
          • Maniac
          • Manifesto
          • Masks
          • Maybe Account, The
          • May Twenty Third
          • Money
          • Mother's Day
          • Muse
          • Musing on a Hunt
          • My Mother's Eyes
      • Poems N-Z >
        • N-O >
          • Napster Revolt
          • Nest
          • New Year
          • Noël Coward's Party
          • No Fun
          • Not Cool
          • Not Crazy
          • Old Love
          • On Norman Mailer's Death
        • P-Q >
          • Painter Man
          • Party People
          • Perfume
          • Personal Wealth
          • Philadelphia
          • Pity Party
          • Plan, A
          • Please Leave the Memories
          • Politics
          • Prankster
          • Present Company Excluded
          • Pride It Was And Dignity
          • Puppy Love
          • Quack
        • R >
          • Radar
          • Rated "R"
          • Real Pitfalls
          • Reconciliation
          • Respect For Elders
          • Résumé
          • Resurrection
          • Return To Light From Darkness
          • Risk
        • S >
          • Save A Place For Me
          • Sex, Fast.
          • Shell
          • She Doesn't Hold a Candle
          • Signature
          • Simple Man, A
          • Spirit Specialist
          • Spring
          • Still Life With Butter Dish
          • Studio System
          • Sup
          • The Surgeon
        • T >
          • Teacher
          • Thank God, It Was Only A Dream
          • These Voices
          • They
          • They Say I'm Crazy
          • This Doesn't Rhyme
          • A Time Before Dying
          • Toxic Friends
          • Trademark
          • Treadmill
        • U >
          • Under Bed Delivery
          • Underground Reverie
          • An Understanding
          • Unearthly
          • Untitled
          • Untitled 2
          • Untitled People
          • Untitled Sadness
          • Utopian Melodrama
        • V-Z >
          • Verse For A Death Chamber
          • Volley
          • War
          • Warming Up To Change
          • Weathered Hands
          • We the Depressed
          • What It's Like to Look at Me
          • What Would You Have Done With Me?
          • Who Can Say?
          • You, Me, and He
          • The Young Narcissists
    • SoundCloud Poetry Readings
    • YouTube Poetry Readings