Keys to Mine

Two keys
One name on the buzzer

The agent left at four with the paperwork
The van comes Thursday with the bed
So it's me, one lamp, and a floor picnic —
Crisps, olives, the fizzy stuff on offer
Bread torn straight off the loaf like a feast day
The lamp throwing everything gold and generous
And the one good champagne glass
Wrapped in newspaper since the old life
The boiler introduced itself with a clank
I said hello. We're going to get along
I ate sitting on the actual floor
Of the actual flat with my actual name
On a buzzer that buzzes for me
Thirty-nine light switches. I counted them
Like a woman counting her own pulse, delighted
I turned every single one on
Stood in the middle of my own bright nowhere
And let the meter run like applause
My electricity. My extravagance
First bill's on me, I told the walls

No shoes rule? My rule
Music at midnight? My call
Every wall in here is a yes
Waiting for my colour

Keys to mine!
(Mine, all mine)
Danced on the bare floor by the door
One lamp, one buzzer with my name —
Keys to mine tonight

Whose floor?
(My floor)
Whose walls?

An empty flat has the best acoustics —
I tested this extensively till one
Sang into the echo of no furniture —
Full voice, the shower voice, the car voice
All the voices I'd kept the volume down on —
Conducted the radiators like a pit
Bowed to the lamp. The lamp said nothing. Fan
The neighbour knocked. I braced for the telling
She'd brought a spider plant and a roll of bin bags
"Everyone forgets bin bags. Welcome"
Her name is Rose. The plant's name is pending
She stayed for one paper cup of fizz
Toasted 'to quiet neighbours and loud joy,'
And pointed out which floorboard creaks —
Second from the window. It's mine now. My creak
I put Rose's plant on the windowsill
And the windowsill became a home

No landlord's magnolia. My blue
No inspection Tuesdays. My peace
Every wall in here is a yes
And I've got a Saturday, a ladder, and a blue

Keys to mine!
(Mine, all mine)
Danced on the bare floor by the door
One lamp, one buzzer with my name —
Keys to mine tonight

Deposit: mine
Plant: thriving
The radiator ticked its slow warm morse
The fridge found its hum. We all settled in

I slept on the floor that first night
By choice, with the curtains open
Because the streetlight came in gold
Each passing car swept the ceiling like a lighthouse
And I thought: I own this view
Well — me and the bank. Mostly the bank
But my name's first on the letter

Keys to mine!
(Mine, all mine)
The van comes Thursday — let it come
Rose's plant on the sill, gold light —
Keys to mine tonight

Thirty-nine switches
(All on)
Keys to mine

Keys to mine tonight