The Room

The Room
by Jim Bennett

underneath the blue green paper
pictures of flowers
is the ghost of wood-chip
and in places round the fireplace
in the wrong light
you can see
the papered over not-to-my-taste
dark blue paint
that someone thought
could be a feature

there are two settees
a TV, a video, a SKY digital box;
the channel chasing handsets
wait on a side table next to where I sit

There are a stack of video tapes
played or waiting to be played
books, magazines,
todays newspapers
and in one corner
the computer
that links me to a billion names
But even so
in spite of all this
the room is empty