Broke Down Wicker Basket

The earth was too full of stuff.

Three visitors were planning a visit
from Neptune
so the Head of Domestic Services
decided to have a clear out.
This proved a tricky business.
In landfill sites across the world
intimate relationships were seen
to have developed between
unwanted items assumed to be
polar opposites. Empty cans
of insect repellent had married
rickshaws. Old blankets were
discovered entwined with fuchsias.
In Laos the cracked shell
of a walnut was found to be
obsessed with a cardigan.
Across the entire globe it appeared,
the world
of waste had become transformed
into an ocean of love.

The Head of Domestic Services
reported his findings back
to Neptune. Don't worry
they said we have discovered
exactly the same phenomenon
on our own planet and began
to regale him with a story about
a bucket and some bamboo
that were on a lucrative lecture tour
of their homeland dealing on the subject
of international peace.

But the Head of Domestic Services
was bored by then and anyway decided
to concentrate on his memoirs, most
of which were thrown in a broke
down wicker basket at the top
of the stairs.

if you look closely at such objects
from time to time you may just
catch a glimpse of how animated
they can actually be