Thin Partition

By Gordon Challis.

Someone next door is moving things about -
dusting the shelves which don't need dusting,
making changes simply for the sake of change
or hoping that new order in the room will rout
those evil demons who resent what's new and strange.
Someone next door is singing as she moves -
maybe this tune will mark the turning,
work the trick for years-old resolutions
really to come true; but then she leaves
a word amiss which spoils the spell's relations.
Someone next door is thinking what to do -
wondering what meat to buy for Sunday
or shall she go back home and try again
to hide the fact that there she feels more lonely
and knows the reason yet cannot explain.
Someone is talking to us in her way -
her shadow presses windlike through the scrim;
my wife and I are hurried, we are going out;
someone next door is asking us to stay,
someone next door is moving things about.