Empty Seat Communion

The turkey is carved,

the silver is bright

Our kids are all home

in the gold-colored light

Nobody said

where her seat was to be

So her place is still set

right across from me

I bow my head low,

I clear my dry throat

To say her old grace,

word-for-word, note-for-note

But after the part about blessing the bread (My god) Every line

disappears from my head

And the silence is heavy,

the silence is long

Until our youngest girl

hums the end of her song

Her voice is a mirror,

her voice is a key

She finishes the blessing for me

And there is the first empty chair

But I feel a new quiet breathing in there

You do not sweep up the wreckage we bear You just sit

right beside me In the first empty chair (yeah)

I cannot open my eyes yet,

I stay

Right here in the grace that she carried away

You don't patch the hole in the wall with a phrase You

just stand in the dark of our days

At the first empty chair

But I feel a new quiet breathing in there

You do not sweep up the wreckage we bear You just sit

right beside me In the first empty chair

(hallelujah, right beside me)

We open our eyes And pass the bread round

You are here in the silence

You are here on the ground