The Empty Chair: A poem about finding joy in the people around us

He sits at a round table,

In the Broadway Café,

Broken jeans, worn for decades,

Patched more than a couple times,

Worn leather shoes, and I can see the crushed backs,

Should be tied,

But he only slips into them now.

A striped, white and green button-up shirt,

Hangs loose on his frail frame,

And his shaking hands,

Missed a button in the middle.

He’s slouched in his wooden chair,

And a beaten leather jacket,

With a blue and tan stripe running across the back shoulder,

Is draped on the chair across from him.

I have a while here.

My lemon bar only has a single bite taken out,

And you can still see the white heart in my latte.

So, I read and wait to see,

Who will fill the empty chair.

A lady in her 30’s walks in.

His daughter, I wonder?

With a young child peering around her hair.

I look to the old man. He smiles at the child.

But before the child can grin and wave back,

They leave. And he wraps the jacket even tighter around his shoulder.

Even I can feel how it got colder.

The chair sits empty.

An older fella with a cane saunters in, 10 minutes later.

A friend, I wonder?

Holding a crumpled newspaper, he orders a drip coffee, straight black.

I look to the old man — they’ll probably talk about the weather,

But the stranger takes his coffee and turns back.

The chair sits empty.

Finally, a half hour gone by, an older lady hobbles in.

A wife, I wonder?

And she makes eye contact with the old man.

He smirks, and his eyes flash.

I swear I can hear them both wish for the past.

But then she leaves … and the chair still sits empty.

I left after a couple of hours,

When I couldn’t stand to look at that empty chair,

And see an old man’s heart.

Tear.

It was the Broadway Café, on a sad Saturday.

That I learned the lesson that still sticks with me today.

It’s tough growing old, but there’s worse pain to bear.

Not having a hand to hold. And sitting across from an empty chair.

I’ve sat in my fair share of coffee shops, airplane terminals, restaurants, FFA chapters and convention halls this year, and it has continued to remind me that we find joy in the people around us.

Thaddeus Bergschneider, a former member of the Franklin FFA Chapter in west-central Illinois, is the 2024-2025 president of the National FFA Organization.