In Your Room

 

In Your Room

 

Here’s your old, old room

and the door’s ajar –

you’ve been here many times before,

more times than you’d care

to recall – and maybe soon

you’ll be using it some more.

Would you like to peer in again?

The tapered staircase,

quarter corkscrewed

is best attempted in solitude

with a candle to light you to bed

and a hush for old men

who bump heads.

Oh, it’s not changed much,

we’ve kept it just the way you like it,

ready for your return –

not much of a homecoming to be sure,

but your fittings and fixtures,

cobwebs, dust, ancient pictures

smothered in the unbrushed dust

of just remembered conquests

are all present and correct -

and there, something intangible

that burns all the same,

something once learned

remains unlearned for heaven's sake.

We give thanks - Take, eat

choke on Ms Havisham’s wedding cake.