My Neighbor … please go away!
It's a bit of a cheat – I couldn't stick to ten lines. I had never considered writing a poem about this irritating person – but it was a very good idea (if not a very good poem!).
You live your life invisibly, but not quietly, just beyond the garden wall
where all your sounds and smells can reach me,
invade my sleep, grate against my nerves.
Sounds of a car engine, spluttering and choking, being turned over … and over,
power tools, sandpaper against wood, voices talking, talking, talking in the dark.
Rustling in the garden in the middle of the night … Why?
Endless renovating,
the gritty scrape of steel spade against stone, turning over wet cement.
Acrid tentacles of cigarette smoke yanking me from my sleep.
Oh, and the water you waste … the river that flows from under your gate,
over the pavement, into the gutter, down the hill …
precious water in a dry country sent to sewage and out to sea …
I wish you would go with it.
