Zen and the art of moving house

1. Staring at things saying ‘for fuck sake’ won’t get them packed.
2. After a while you can recognise the different brands of packing tape by taste.
3. Describing to others – the things you love ‘come with you’, as opposed to things you have no attachment to, which you ‘pack.’
4. Ten neighbours know I’m moving; I told only one.
5. A place you have loved holds you, even as you move away.
6. Possessions and personal identity; Yin and Yang.
7. Fingers remember now to move more carefully over sharp cardboard edges.
8. I see the dovetail joints of antique drawers still holding strong; these will outlive me.
9. When the cherry blossoms return, this will have passed.
10. A friend offered to give up a day of work to help me move; to have friends like this is to be rich.

‘The old house

A leaf blows by

Gone.’