Someone Else's Property
Reflections in a Rented Room
This Airbnb has me lost in thought
I've been thinking about regrets
As so often I do when I'm awake
At night in the wee small hours
Or the light of day, anytime really
Sitting in someone else's property
Makes me think how weird it is
To be sitting in someone else's property
I think there's been a cat here
My allergies have been triggered
Hotels are designed for strangers
But homes are not — unless money
That's true of most things
Gifts, acts of love, sex and death
Become things for strangers
When there's a bottom line
_
Someone else’s time, their body, their mind, their heart.
My nose is swollen a little — not too dramatically —
In someone else's property, in a city unfamiliar
That could be any Scottish city, save for the green buses
and the coastal-meets-urban landscape
_
The gulls are calling now,
replacing the distant sirens
and the calls of the delinquents and disreputes
_
Not that I can judge,
as my regrets and guilt and growing uneasy,
and the damn allergic reaction,
remind me I am not sinless or saintly.
My halo chokes and I too have benefitted
and suffered from the commoditisation of someone's property,
visually beyond physical reach but still enough for viscera.
*
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!
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Comments (8)
The way you connect commodification to intimacy, regret and guilt is powerful. It lingers long after reading.
Living in various airbnbs can make some feel things in a different way, but your poems seem to teach me new vocabulary like the word 'commoditisation'. I have never heard this term before. Great work.
These last couple of pieces feel tender, Paul. As if you are taking a break from your edgier inclinations to meditate rather than shame bash. I really enjoyed the combination of introspection with observation and speculation. In your hands , leaving the familiar for the strangeness of someone else’s bed and space feels somehow rootless. Truly enjoyed your reflections. Like Matthew, I too wish to learn how you formatted this. I hate the format limitations on Vocal.
The photo drives home that airbnb feeling I get when I’m in one. There’s an undercurrent of tawdriness that I can’t shake. Get out and enjoy the town.
Okay but the town sounds nice hahah How’d you get this to format in such a way?
Things I do not want to think about, as someone who lives in airbnbs... especially when the cleaning fee differs so much from €0 to €60. Thanks goodness I'm not allergic to any fur. Just rambling here while sitting in someone else's property :D
It's funny how sleeping (or rather trying to sleep) in another person's space can send one's mind down an unexpected rabbit hole.
I learn a new word, viscera. I do wonder if sometimes we really do live someone else's life, if we can fixed it or make it worst by jumping in it. This is very deep. Excellent work as always Paul.