Armchairs That We've Known

This photo was taken in Paris before an area known as Les Entrepots de Bercy had been transformed into office buildings and upscale apartments. The Bercy Warehouses was acres and acres of ancient wine warehouses along the Seine that had lain abandoned for years. I was lucky to slip under a fence one day and roam around in there, because not long after that day, the entire place was bull-dozed... a criminal act if there ever was one. More pictures will follow from the Bercy Warehouses... if I'd only known then what I know now, I'd have taken hundreds more photos than I did. This one always seemed like a stage scene to me, just waiting for the actors to come in from the wings...

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Armchair
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It was sitting there
Next to the dumpster
In the rain
Drooping
Looking far less like an armchair
An old tired down on its luck armchair
A Bowery Row beatnick beat up armchair
An armchair that had obviously endured
At least fifteen years
Of sweat and farts and pretzel crumbs
Spilled beer and ketchup stains
All of that and more undoubtedly
Without a complaint
Yet for all of that
Those fifteen arduous years
Those fifteen faithful years
There it was
Sitting
Next to the dumpster
In the rain
Looking far less
Like an armchair
Than it looked
Like an old and tired dog
Told unceremoniously
To leave
To go away
To get out
After all those years
And it went down the street
With head down
And tail between legs

The pain was crushing
Like the soggy plaid upholstery

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