Monday 23 December 2019

Evocation #7 Homeless

Fifteen places, nineteen moves.
Frequent removalist points!
(They knew how we took our takeaway coffee!)
(They commented on any recent acquisitions.)
How many rooms did we paint?
“You roll and I’ll cut in.”
I graduated to your favoured brushes,
Under your eye!
Working through the night to Saturday-night-country...
Blue for the bedroom, helped us to know which one was ours.
Painting helped us to claim spaces and make them our own - for a time.

For a time - I kept our kitchen in plastic boxes,
Ready for the next move.
We shared the missionary life, tent making,
repairing gardens wherever we went.
Once, we moved a rockery, complete with thirty-plants,
Walking it up the road in wheelbarrow loads,
friends subjected to hard-labour.

Herbs and veggies, walls of strawberries,
countless salads, fresh broad beans.
Traps for snails and nets for birds,
Mothballs scattered like marbles,
instructing cats to stay away,
Except for our Kat.

The dining table, ever extending,
Adopting family... Lighting candles, dunking in waves,
Feeding and laughing, storying together.
Constant washing of sheets as guests and friends come and go.
Keeping locksmiths in business!

Our first Christmas, all you wanted was a house
The four-inch miniature reminded us of dreams and promises.
We decided then our home was wherever we were together.

So, now I am homeless.

(C) 2019, A.Koh-Butler

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