David Boll
It's all in the mind
Below the head of the stairs
Seldom noticed
Stands the broom cupboard
Full of old brooms and dust pans
And the ironing board.
Do not be forever moving them about -
These implements
Merit their long silences
Jumbled up in the dark together.
Who knows, if you let them rest, if you let them rest
They may move themselves one night while you are sleeping
And you will find in the morning that the house
Is bright and burnished and all the furniture
Shifted about into more interesting places.
The dustbins will be stuffed
With lots of old junk that you thought important
A broken vase
Mysteriously mended, will command the mantelpiece
Mirrors
Will shuffle the too familiar perspectives
On the wallpaper
The stilted flowers will have burgeoned
Lavish new spring colours.
Under the bed
The dust of exhausted loves will be swept away
And the very hair
Of the girl lying next to you will be brushed in her sleep
Till you find her quite mysteriously beautiful.
Do not ask how it is done
Or open the cupboard and interrogate the brushes -
You will learn nothing and they will not like it
And may never amuse themselves for you again.
Let them lie there, peacefully neglected,
And enjoy your new rooms -
It is all they wish, it is all they wish.
Page(s) 50-51
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