Empty seat

 ***+ seat empty +***
Seat sits empty
Seat sits bare
There is no one sitting there
Perhaps a stigma attached
If well bodied or physically able
To try sitting on that
As if to do
The first small surrender
To morbid thoughts of mortality
Conceding age and infirmity
Still the seat remains unused
Perhaps in sitting be abused
By another old and frail
Who is half as healthy and hale
Perhaps pregnant and large as a whale
Someone must more deserving
Of a place for posterior resting
Between those other people sit
While we stand and grip
Riding bumps with unseeing nonchalance
Never meeting eyes of other commuters
As if riding a train alone
Except for the shouting twits
Using mobile phones
Instead of sending silent tweets
Yet still does not explain
Why seat empty does remain
As with stoic faces we stand
Tired and worn by day at work
Even our feet are hurt
Yet no one moves to take the seat
We stand until our station reach
Then shuffle off to home and hearth
where we can our stoicism lapse
Make ourselves over comfortable
And contemplate over tea
Why no one sat when seat was free.