I've never posted a poem before. But then I thought, hey, why not? So here are some lines I wrote last night. Landfill.
That brand new coffee maker in its box
The pedal bike you sometimes get to ride
The Merry-Christmas-music-playing socks
The blanket chest that someone left outside
The candelabra and the cordless drill
The painting of a piglet in a sty
The matching set of cases
And the shoes that lost their laces
And the bucket with a hole
And the little plastic troll
Well they’ll all end up in landfill
Yes they’ll all end up in landfill, yes
they’ll all end up in landfill by and by
The 3D television
That was wholly your decision
You couldn’t quite envision
Why it gathered such derision
But one thing you can very clearly say
It will end up in a landfill one fine day
The foot spa and the heated hostess tray
The banjo and the yellow plastic sleigh
The printer that always seemed to jam
The winter coat, the retro children’s pram,
The assegai, the ink supply,
The faded regimental tie
They’ll all end up in landfill
Yes they’ll all end up in landfill, yes
they’ll all end up in landfill by and by
Well there may be little trinkets hidden somewhere in your
home
That might survive the disregard of others yet to come
There might be space on a junkshop shelf
For those dumbbell weights
Or that Christmas elf
But don’t expect the future to
Make room for plastic caribou
Or that trendy bomber jacket
That cost a blooming packet
Or those solar lights or stunter kites
Or cricket whites
Or body tights
Say what you will, yet they will still
Go in the spill … and why?
Because they all end up in landfill by and by.
The green enamel shower tray
That didn’t match the loo
The tangled box of cables where you don’t know what they do
The hardened glue, the leaky shoe,
The shirt you wore for that interview,
The microwave, the aftershave
The wristband from the Oxford rave
The bass guitar the pull up bar
The items from the school bazaar
Their days now surely numbered are
You’ll load them one day in the car
And drive them to the local tip
And chuck them gladly in the skip
Where unloved things are left to die
And off they go to landfill
Yes off they go to landfill
For they’ll all end up in landfill by and by.
Every carpet ever woven
Every fridge and every oven
Every book and every toy
Every box of Christmas joy
Every single DVD
And every tiny bonsai tree
And every leather backed settee
And every helium balloon
And every card that plays a tune
And every tool in ever shed
And every mattress, every bed
Every strimmer, every mower,
Every useless autumn blower,
Every screw and every nail
And every package through the mail
And everything you’ll ever buy
They don’t have long before they lie
Lost, abandoned and forgotten
Deep in landfills dank and rotten
No one there to wish them all goodbye
For all of them .. and me and you
When all our days on earth are through
will all end up in landfill
Yes we’ll all end up in landfill, yes
we’ll all end up in landfill by and by.
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