They Gave Me a Chair

They Gave Me A Chair.

I either read about or saw a picture of Simone de Beauvoir sitting on a chair above the grave at Sartre's funeral.That image of a woman sitting above a grave with the backdrop of the thousands that turned out for Sartre's funeral is strange. Somehow sitting on the chair makes wallpaper of the crowds.And I imagine the act of sitting would, for some reason, alter your thinking.

They gave me a chair
so I could sit beside the grave,
like a woman painted in
after the funeral crowds had gathered.

And I, his lover, looking down
as though this earth was some sort of heaven,
thinking
I'd prefer it south-facing
or he could do with a bit more space
or some other such nonsense.

Then, alone again, I found,
fixed above all my memories,
the picture of a coffin
on the floor of an empty room
as seen from above.

(from Sunfire)