This is where she keeps her objet d’art

glass cabinet at the back of her head

 

            nowhere to display them

 

I’m a front room, Christmas, 50’s. 60’s

maybe into the 70’s and I ask

what was the front room for?

                                           Standard

English clipped tones and a mother not

unlike my own through china eyes of an owl

bought as a  Christmas present

            cut glass sherry glass silver bells

tinkle: who has front rooms nowadays

 

            nowhere display them

 

I live in a flat. Not completing

sentences: you live in a house

do you have a front room?

                                    Or have you

knocked through the history of

the English language is the struggle

between freedom and prescription. Do

neighbours stare through windows

at the speechless furniture? We weren’t

allowed in the front room sent

to the auction house and prepositions

not for ending a sentence with

 

            nowhere to display

 

                                                What

happened to back parlours front rooms

the Middle English Vowel Shift

they’re not for living in

                                    Never ask the way

of someone who knows the glottal stop

has gradually entered Standard English

from the dialect one day we took the walls

down around the front room. Leave the

coats in the bedroom would anyone like

a drink you risk not getting lost

 

            nowhere display

 

                                    however much

you dusted the Spode the Queen’s English

never drove down your street but she

visited the front room 1953

                                        your first TV

split infinitives a ghostly flicker

in the corner of the room