Table for One, Please

Posted on 2025-09-08 by Bartholomew Barker

Glass of red wine in one hand
and a purple pen in the other.
If I had antennae, they’d be quivering.

The booth to my right wraps
around two men, complaining
about the wives they fear to lose.

The booth to my left guards
female travelers with inscrutable accents
planning tomorrow’s adventure.

And over there a young couple paying
more attention to their phones than each other,
heads oddly tilted in my direction.

Just another evening’s eavesdrop.
It’s not a sin, if you’re a poet.

(For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt and today’s Living Poetry’s Prompt.)

Unknown's avatar

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
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39 Responses to Table for One, Please

  1. DD's avatar DD says:
    2025-09-08 at 21:00

    The gentle art of eavesdropping
    I love this line in particular + men
    complaining about the wives they fear to lose
    ~
    Cheers
    DD

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Melissa Lemay's avatar Melissa Lemay says:
    2025-09-08 at 21:07

    My children are all poets.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Linlokfei's avatar Linlokfei says:
    2025-09-08 at 21:10

    Love this! 😁 in good company amidst table for one 😁😁

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Rene Heartsong's avatar Rene Heartsong says:
    2025-09-08 at 21:22

    I love this!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. trE's avatar trE says:
    2025-09-08 at 22:15

    “It’s not a sin, if you’re a poet.”

    It’s not, indeed.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  6. berniebell1955's avatar berniebell1955 says:
    2025-09-09 at 03:49

    That brought back memories for Mike. When he first went to work in Lowestoft, staying at a B&B for 3 months, and I was still living in Stroud – he grew to resent the evening ritual of ‘Table for one please’.

    Then – we got our house, I arrived and it changed to ‘Table for Two please.’

    ‘Table for one’ is a very evocative line.

    I’m sure you can make a poem out of those two lines, and the difference in life that they hold.

    I’ll have a go……

    ‘When….. ‘Table for one’
    Becomes…..’Table for two’

    There’s no longer a reason
    For feeling blue’

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. berniebell1955's avatar berniebell1955 says:
    2025-09-09 at 04:02

    PS – Shouldn’t the pic. be fish & chips?

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. berniebell1955's avatar berniebell1955 says:
    2025-09-09 at 04:21

    PPS….Straight in m’blog. – with some interesting information about Cromwell – IF……… http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=17486

    Liked by 1 person

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  9. Ephemeral Encounters's avatar Ephemeral Encounters says:
    2025-09-09 at 06:29

    The last line 😉
    Indeed!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. poetisatinta's avatar poetisatinta says:
    2025-09-10 at 08:36

    A glass of red 🍷in one hand and a pen🖋️ in the other….what more do you need🙌

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. Nicole Smith's avatar Nicole Smith says:
    2025-09-10 at 16:39

    I love to go to my local coffee shop and people watch. Also, my family has a rule, you can only look at your phone until the order goes in. Then it is family time. Sometimes we break it to look up goofy questions or would you rather, but no mindless scrolling when we go out to eat.

    Liked by 1 person

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  12. lifelessons's avatar lifelessons says:
    2025-09-11 at 08:26

    I love your poem, Bartholomew, and I know exactly what you mean. When I was 34, I quit my job, sold my house and moved to California to write the great American novel, knowing only one person there. I spent most of my days driving to one beach or another to sit on the beach or one restaurant or another, writing. Just recently I’ve been going through papers and found several poems or stories written while in a restaurant ,eavesdroping. I don’t think any of them are as readable as yours is. Now I must read more….

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  13. Pingback: “Deer Ones” | lifelessons – a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown

  14. lifelessons's avatar lifelessons says:
    2025-09-11 at 10:05

    Bart, after reading this poem, I liked it so much that I established a link to it in my blog, but also wrote an “answer” poem to one of your other poems. You can find it here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2025/09/11/deer-ones/
    That said, I’d like to give a link to the poem it is in answer to, but could not for the life of me find it again. Can you send me a link and I’ll link it, too? It will be obvious to you which poem I am referring to.

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. lifelessons's avatar lifelessons says:
    2025-09-11 at 10:35

    Bart, never mind. I found your deer poem and have put a link to it on my blog as well..Actually, someone who read my blog found the link and sent it to me…

    Liked by 2 people

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  16. Susi Bocks's avatar Susi Bocks says:
    2025-09-22 at 23:39

    Inspiration is never a sin! :) That meal looked quite tasty. :)

    Liked by 1 person

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