The Room (poem)
Created | Updated Mar 2, 2010
The Room
Smallness: crammed by tiny tacky bed
Shut door, dull glass, shadow pressing in
Lamp with cracked and gassy mantle shreds
Gray distemper walls like rotting skin
Splintery floorboards pricking under foot
Grime-filled curtains holding back the sky
Spider glares from corner web in soot at
Locked in child, determined not to cry
Boy lifts the sash and lets warm sunlight in
Its rays of promise pushed through leafy trees
To find young face but not revealing tears
With urchin grin he slips across the sill
And ‘I’ve won’ eyes have no alerting sound as
He hangs a while, then drops to freedom ground
Smallness: crammed by tiny tacky bed
Shut door, dull glass, shadow pressing in
Lamp with cracked and gassy mantle shreds
Gray distemper walls like rotting skin
Splintery floorboards pricking under foot
Grime-filled curtains holding back the sky
Spider glares from corner web in soot at
Locked in child, determined not to cry
Boy lifts the sash and lets warm sunlight in
Its rays of promise pushed through leafy trees
To find young face but not revealing tears
With urchin grin he slips across the sill
And ‘I’ve won’ eyes have no alerting sound as
He hangs a while, then drops to freedom ground
