The Attic Crawl Space
It’s easy to trip
on the mess left behind
that piles up like newspapers
at a dead person’s door
I can’t stand upright
amid the unwanted boxes
A single light bulb dangles
Insulation is exposed
It’s like the mind of the house
where forgotten thoughts inhabit
where outgrown interests
are like star crossed sweethearts
It’s easy to deny
my part of the plastic mass
as large as the state of Texas
floating in the Pacific
Grounded by gravity
my space debris collects
like extra pounds to carry
like refugees hidden from view
But even water evaporates
and returns as rain
Bodies decompose
and fly away as dust
that must land somewhere
If life can’t be created or destroyed
but can only change its form
nothing can really be thrown away
only moved from room to room
________Colleen Redman / Poets United
November 10th, 2019 9:18 am
round and round and round….
November 10th, 2019 9:42 am
I know this crawlspace… my mother’s house needs to be cleaned out, and part of my history is also there… wonder if I dare.
November 10th, 2019 12:41 pm
This is incredibly potent! I especially love the last stanza ..brimming with depth and wisdom ❤️
November 10th, 2019 1:46 pm
This reminds me of my friend, complaining about excess packaging and the store person saying “just throw it away.” My friend said “there IS no “Away.” Good topic, Colleen.
November 10th, 2019 4:00 pm
Ha, I empathize. Sometimes it is so hard to throw things away. I have to be IN THE MOOD. I did some decluttering about a month ago – lugged some things to Goodwill. One has to do it when the spirit strikes!
November 10th, 2019 4:41 pm
My crawl space is empty. The attic though…
November 10th, 2019 5:57 pm
Plenty of rueful laughter upon reading this, thinking of the fall boxes in the front room that will soon give way to Christmas boxes. I do love the idea of the attic being the place where the house thinks, insulated from the drama beneath, until it gets packed into trash bags and carried up.
November 10th, 2019 8:51 pm
In so many ways, our lives cannot be thrown away. We must be mindful what we do with them. I, too, like the attic as the mind of the house and how reflective that is of the clutter we all store in our minds. Wonderful write!
November 11th, 2019 8:39 am
Love the last line!
November 11th, 2019 11:33 am
I find it more than a little unnerving to think that all the plastic we humans generate is only going to be shuffled from here to there and back again. It’s even more unnerving to think that some of that plastic finds a home in us.
November 11th, 2019 8:24 pm
This reminds me so of what it is like when I clean one of the rooms in my house–it feels as though all I do is move it from room to room–
November 11th, 2019 11:23 pm
Greetings, fellow-hoarder! I love the idea of it being like the mind of the house.