In Thora's House

In Thora's house there's a precious trove

Books and treasures hanging from the walls

The floor is piled with magic stuff

A patchwork-rendered brick and massive oak-beam record of centuries.

Sixteen wicker baskets, bags and trugs hang from a kitchen ceiling beam.

Steamrollered cookware betrays its three-dimensional origins

In proud and crazy exhibit on a wall.

A dictionary open on a desk-stand in the diner

Near the fire a pile of dictionaries frequently perused

She chases words as they tease our conversation.

When the eye adjusts more dictionaries reveal themselves in shelves and shelves

And from her swaps, twenty-six pages only are saved.

Les autres feuilles are varnished on to indifferent wooden furniture.

A literal, literary house of words,

A house of interpretations 

Where meanings

Have their own

Meanings.

Orange boxes brim with kindling and logs.

The clocks have all stopped

All times

All seasons

Frozen.

Upstairs in the guestroom

• Larousse Commercial Illustré

• Larousse Médical

• Larousse Universal en deux volumes

• Larousse Familial …

Dico!  Dico!  Dico!

Did I mention the hats?

From a box by the window look out across the narrow, narrow street

Drinking the curves of tiles on the neighbouring roof … 

Contemplating an expedition up the ladder-steep staircase

To the ancient, open hayloft

Her secret summer boudoir

Repository of deliberately forgotten objets d'art

Et les objets pas d'art – encore oublié

So much half-forbiddden promise in this half-light

Always open to another world, the street below that never knows.

Falling backwards on to the bed built out of boxes and a mattress,

Stare into heaven after the heaven of lover's games

And through the tiles contemplate the stars.

In Thora's house.

In Thora’s House © Marshlander - 25th February 2011