As part of the Watermill Theatre’s outreach work, our support group were asked to contribute to a poem for their open workshop ‘Our Untold Stories’. We were thrilled with the result……
Seeing Carpet
Overwhelming, never-ending
Expensive, isolating
Lonely, excluding
Hefty, frustrating
Everywhere, time-consuming
A drain on your energies
No one else in the world understands this loneliest place on earth,
My house held hostage to a shopaholic gone mad who buys and buys and buys and buys
Trapped in your head and trapped in your home
A punishment for an unknown crime
An enormous, heavy secret
You try to run away from all the time but you can’t
A magnet that draws you back
But you keep going
Taking baby steps
Towards decluttering one room
Towards having a decluttered home
Taking the first two big steps, admitting the problem and doing something about it
Clearing, and maintaining, some clear space
Finding your MOT certificate
Celebrating feeling able to invite people over
Being able to have family sat at the table
Being able to sleep in my bed
Going shopping and not buying anything you don’t need
Not worrying about where you’re going to put the shopping down
And when you put something down it stays there
Not feeling dread when you turn the key to go back into your home
Knowing there are no avalanches waiting
Knowing that there is a home for everything and everything is in its home
Knowing you’re not alone
Success is seeing carpet