‘A Bench For One’
Dominique Carrillo-Pierce is a German-American writer, designer, and filmmaker. Her work has been featured in The Malahat Review, Panorama, Bombay Gin, Stone Canoe, WHLR, Bricolage, Miracle Monocle, and more.
A Bench For One
When I die,
I want you to bury me
surrounded by an inconvenient number
of benches—a thousand,
if the earth will hold them.
But if that many cannot fit—
by space, by rules, by reason,
then just one.
As the bench finds its place,
my solitude will settle, slow as soil.
Let footsteps find me in the silence.
I don’t fear death—
only the quiet ache of all I will never see.
Tell me of time—
of struck cymbals reverberating towards
concert walls,
of days unclaimed, waiting to be lived.
Sit, and I’ll listen.
Make it a bench carved for one.
Cozy enough for lingering hours,
wide enough to cradle your stories.
When my son sits,
let me breathe the air of his children's
laughter.
When my daughter sits,
let the air sway with the rhythm of her
dance as my heart recalls each step.
When my love sits,
tell me of your happiness—
of your brave, winding path toward joy,
shining light through the long shadow of
my absence.
And when no one sits,
I’ll still be listening—
to the wind whispering your names,
to footsteps sweeping gravel,
to the living,
being gloriously, unapologetically alive.
Just leave me a bench,
Soft from wear,
warm from setting rays—
one seat’s worth of stories.
Even when you’re gone,
I’ll guard the bench, missing nothing,
finding comfort in the company of your
memory.
And even alone,
the bench keeps your shape.
David Lavenda is a poet and physical therapist from Islandia, New York, with thirty years of experience working closely with patients through pain, recovery, and resilience. Drawing from both personal experience and a career spent witnessing the quiet courage of the human body and spirit, his poetry explores bullying, complicated love, legacy, and parenting. His work has been published in Academy of the Heart and Mind.
