The Table Stays Set

[Intro]
[low vocal register
Almost a whisper]
A single table
In a crowded room
One chair turned away
One plate
Never used
[Verse 1]
White cloth
Laid flat
No wrinkles
Like dress uniforms
Folded
Waiting
Still
Salt in a small glass dish
For tears we’ve already cried
A slice of lemon on the plate
For the bitterness we carry inside
An empty glass
Upside down
For the toasts they’ll never raise
A candle trembling in its holder
Trying to stand against the haze
[Chorus]
This table stays set
For the ones who can’t come home
Every fork
Every flower
Says you’re never
Never gone
We remember your names
Even when the room moves on
This table stays set
This table stays set
[Verse 2]
Dog tags on the napkin
Cold metal
Warm thumb
Reading numbers
Silent letters
Mouth forming what it can’t become
The chair pushed in
Too perfect
No boots kicked underneath
No laugh cutting through the quiet
Just folded flags and folded grief
A cap resting by the candle
Shadow stitched along the wall
Like they’ve just stepped out for a moment
And we’re waiting on their call
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
[soft backing voices
Distant]
It’s not just a symbol
It’s a story in plain sight
Of hands that held the line
So ours could hold this night
Of hearts that beat in places
Most of us will never see
Who carried all our colors
Into rough and rising seas
[Chorus]
[Outro]
[voice alone over fading piano]
The food gets cleared
The chairs get stacked
But the space they held
We can’t give back
So we leave this place
A little more aware
That an empty seat
Means someone’s still there

Spare piano and low pads, slow build from near-silence. Male vocals in intimate spoken word, close-mic’d with subtle room reverb, breaths left in. Rises into a swelling, cinematic chorus with distant snare rolls, soft brass, and a small vocal ensemble answering key lines. Emotional arc moves from quiet reflection to resonant, communal remembrance, then back to a single voice and fading keys., emotional, spoken word