Powerful. Walking away from an ‘empty seat’ is one of the hardest things we’ll ever have to do. – You’ve captured that, my friend. Thank you for sharing.

depressed, but willing to do something other than sit there and do nothing. I just hope that rope is figurative..

I like this, reminds me of a novel I read many years ago with a line: Save a seat for me.

I like your line near the end ending with “seat next to me.” But the third line doesn’t end that way, it seems a bit wordy.

Thanks for the support, all. It is a figurative rope. And maybe it’s the voice of a character and not me or mine, I’d like to think.

I’ll see if I can edit that clunky line. Thanks 32 :)

“rope n open up” Yes, just yes.