Two on The Trot (2)

colour two

Let’s start with the table.

A bottle- it’s empty, except for the stub of a candle where the cork would be. The label says that the wine was Rioja, a Crianza from 2011.

Behind the bottle is a book. The book is old, the book is musty with mildew, I am trying to dry it in the sun.

Sunlight reaches the table through the scattered leaves of the tree above.

Shadows therefore.

A glass case, it too is open.

And empty.

An upturned tube of mosquito spray.

Anti.

A small file of paper types, samples from April 1979.

And a bowl, also empty, that recently carried Muesli.

Then there’s the sofa.

I’m here and the cat was.

One was beside me, another climbed up behind me.

The one beside growled, and sulked away.

The behind waited, then followed to see how much more he could annoy the other.

So part of the sofa is also empty.

Two other chairs too, waiting for someone.

Two umbrellas shelter the bed that sits in the back of the open van.

Empty now.

But also waiting.

For tonight.

The fire will need rebuilding; it is spent and only ash.

The tree is also ash.

But alive.

It shelters everything.

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