The House Answers Back

Christmas drinks for the neighbours, 2004

So,

Do you want to know

What I liked about that do of yours

Last night

Then?

Well,

The lights were fine

And all that hot air

Warmed up my cockles

Pretty much as expected.

But,

Thinking long term,

Thinking about the fabric, (and

Given that enough music

And coherent talk

From familiar voices

Have already seeped

Into my being)

What I really, really liked

Was the noise.

An inchoate, undefinable,

Unruly, two hour crescendo of human-sound,

Unlike anything that’s been before.

I will lay this down

Deep inside my stone

And nothing will remove it.

I will hold on to it

For ever.

Long, long after you have gone

From there.