The skip I'd hired arrived
early on the Saturday morning
dirty yellow and rusty,
dressed in scruffy jeans
and a faded t-shirt
I set about filling the skip.
In went the old TV set,
bashed up suit-cases,
decades' worth of junk
from the loft,
instruments that I couldn't recall
buying let alone playing.
I gathered all the rubbish
from the garden, broken spades,
brushes and deck-chairs,
swept up all the fallen leaves
I'd been kicking through for months.
There was something so therapeutic
about the process, this spring clean,
a clean slate. This clear-out
would do me so much good.
They took the fully-loaded skip away,
I gave the driver a ten pound tip,
the least I could do,
and waved the skip off
down the street,
as though it was a ship
going off to sea.
I went back inside smiling,
satisfied at a job well-done,
looking around my
newly clutter-free home.
It felt like a new house.
It was perfect.
My hard-work complete it was
time for a nice cup of tea
and to work on my latest poem.
The smile faded from my face
as I noticed the nice, clean
tidy empty space
where my poetry book
had been.
I swore and cursed and fumed,
raged around my lovely empty room.
Spic and span suddenly feeling
like a chain, a noose around
my neck.
All my notes and jotting and ideas
were on their way to the junk-yard.
Months and years of scribblings
and half-thoughts, that would
one day be turned into poems
and stories,
sent away with the trash.
What on earth would I write about now?
Would I even be able to write?
My muse had been packed up
and thrown away.
It felt like I'd gathered up
my lover's belongings
in bin bags and dumped them
out on the street.
I grabbed a pen and paper,
needing to write something
anything, craving the process,
the feel of the words forming
sentences and lines on the page.
And so I began.
The skip I'd hired arrived
early on the Saturday morning
dirty yellow and rusty,
-
Author:
Tom C Dylan (
Offline) - Published: February 7th, 2024 03:40
- Comment from author about the poem: I recently hired a skip for a clear out at home and that inspired me to write this poem.
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 17
- Users favorite of this poem: Teddy.15, Accidental Poet.
Offline)
Comments7
So you gave not only a ten pound tip but your most amazing scribbles, 😂 nah I'm not buying it!!!! LoL oh so very endearing Tom C Dylan I absolutely love a good clean out. And I do love the heart on the sleeve way in which you write. Hey we can always start from scratch right! 🤗 Happy wednesday poetry friend.
Thanks Teddy. Appreciated. The skip part is true and I thought there was a poem there, and the ending just fitted in nicely. And yep, happy Wednesday, to you too. Do you call it hump day too? Halfway to weekend today. 🙂
No it's just Wednesday here 😆
Oh, I feel your pain Tom. Long ago I did the same thing on my computer. I had multiple folders of my poetry incase one got deleted by mistake, so I wanted to unclutter my computer by deleting all but one of those folders. Well, you guessed it, I ended up deleting even the last one. But...as the dust settled I began again with a new poem. It's a hard pill to swallow, but it does happen sometimes. You gave birth to a great poem in he wake of your clean-out. 😉👍
Ouch! So that actually happened to you? I hired the skip and imagined that I threw out my poems. I feel your pain, AP. Cheers, Tom.
Well, I'm glad yours was just an imaginary experience, yes, mine actually did happen. I lost a lot of really good poems from when I first began writing about finding my birth mother. I still have a few of them, not sure how they survived, but I'm thankful to still have them. 😉
2 more comments
Wish I had your courage, Tom, but do heed the salutary warning however fanciful, re your poetic papers.
Your poetical yarns do it for me, Mate -
Carry on Poeming 😊
Thanks a lot. Dave. Yeah, I hired a skip and imagined I'd thrown out all my writing notes. Thanks a lot for your comments, mate. Really appreciated. 🙂
Argh!! Starting over again with the poems?
I thought you was gonna be Tom I. Dylan. Initialling! lol.
Yeah, the stuff of nightmares. Imaging having to start from scratch! Ouch! And Tom I Dylan sounds a bit like Will I am. 🙂
That's annoying, that Will I am. C'mon man, what's ya real name?! lol. I was gonna be Jo E. Bloggs (Jo for Joseph in this case), though there's about 20 million of them already!
You know Bill Stickers and his friend Bill Posters? They gonna be prosecuted. Aww, why, what they done?! lol. An old joke there.
2 more comments
Superb work.
I sure hope the majority of this is a product of your exceptional imagination and not wholly autobiographical ..
it could only get worse if you were made aware of the huge sums of money that some other folk paid for the old TV set, those bashed up suit-cases, the instruments that you couldn't recall buying let alone playing ..
Not to mention the the rubbish from the garden, broken spades, brushes and deck-chairs ..
you better get your finger out and write on Tom ..
Neville
We did hire a skip for the almost twenty years of junk we'd accumulated. If I was more internet savvy I'd have flogged some of the stuff online. It took me ages to figure this website out so I decided to sling all my broken odds and sods in a skip. The only thing that didn't go in was my stories and poems, the bits that nobody would pay a penny for. 🙂 Have a good evening, mate.
When the beginning was the end and the end is the beginning - Wishing your muse many many more flowing inks! - A well crafted piece, Tom.
Thanks a lot, Garth. Appreciated. The skip part is true, thankfully, my stories and poems were safely tucked away. 🙂 Cheers, Tom.
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