Poem on bathroom wallpaper from B&Q, 2018
This new blue B&Q bathroom wallpaper
wafts me away each morning to the Western Isles
where water peaks and sky arrange themselves
in just such papery shades of blue becoming
clouds which look like mountains above
the level surface of lochans lochs and sea
becoming a further loch and bheinns beyond
and a lighthouse which makes me feel secure
and a huddle of cottages on the rocks
as if they’ve just swum ashore to sun themselves
or be rescued under the tilted ems and vees
of three or four seabirds poised like stars
to guide me into and out of the days that lie
beyond the locked bathroom door
Photograph of the B&Q wallpaper in bathroom
The poem, written about four years ago, was inspired by two things:
1) Nearly getting stuck in the bathroom when the door stuck. There were no windows, I didn’t have my phone in there and was alone in the house with both external doors locked. I wondered how long it would take before I was rescued or even missed. Fortunately I managed to prise my way out.
2) The new wallpaper was a finishing touch to a new bathroom in 2015 and reminded me both of this and of many Scottish holidays.
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