Declutter Time by Anne Ballard

Author: Anne Ballard

The Gist

Anne Ballard is a retired solicitor who was born in Edinburgh and recently returned there after many years in London. Her poems have appeared in various magazines including Acumen, Orbis, Magma, The Interpreter’s House, and Artemis, and in several anthologies, most recently the Federation of Writers (Scotland) 2018 Anthology 'Spindrift'. She has been placed or shortlisted in a number of competitions, and won first prize in the Poetry on the Lake Competition 2015 and 2018. Her pamphlet Family Division, based on her working life as a family and child care lawyer. was published by Rafael Q Publishers, London.

DECLUTTER TIME


Well-intentioned magazines still in the plastic
Status-declaring books, unread or struggled through once
Yellowed old-friend-paperbacks 
Recipes – what’s the Internet for?
Last century’s IT leads, going nowhere
            ditto relationships
Unloved presents from ex-friends
Kitchen gadgets for posh dinner parties
All the odd cutlery
Singletons; earrings, gloves, one-eyed sunglasses
Photos of people I can’t remember
or want to forget
Underwear in the deepest shade of grey
Colour slides from somewhere-or-other-mountains
Expired passports
Shoes that hurt my feet
Comfortable shoes curled up with age
Any clothes I could wear to an office
            small clothes 
Slimming-club optimism
Pipe-dreams
           and all the ashtrays
Almost everything stowed under the sink
The skeletons in both cupboards
Guilt for not wanting to back-pack round India
             mother’s voice saying not you
Worn-out failed friendships
My dead who refuse to lie down
The fear that comes at four in the morning
all to be thrown out
some day.

If you enjoyed Anne Ballard, you should read MARIE-ANDREE AUCLAIR

Find out more about Anne Ballard’s writing here