Sit Back and Relax

Last day in the flat
we can see the finishing
line
returning our six hundred pounds

She’s washing the carpet
with something
that looks like a vacuum
but
which I was told to remember
isn’t

She’s cut all her hair
short
she’s in that old orange
Florida t-shirt
she turns her head
half toward me
and shouts over the incessant hum
“I USED TO LOVE WATCHING THOSE ADVERTS,
WHERE THEY GO IN SOMEONE’S HOUSE
AND SPILL JUICE
OR SOMETHING
ON THE FLOOR AND CLEAN IT UP EASY...”
laughing
she strikes a pose
it takes me back to the early days
I laugh too
and bend down to pick up
a piece of dirt
as I do
I stare tiredly
at a section of skirting board
I had earlier cleaned
so painstakingly
and
I remember again
why
it’s her