Note

Note

Dear Girl across the yard,

I am sorry I can see into your window.

I think you need to know
your flat-mate is sneaking through your things.
I see her sometimes sock-shuffle in and stand in front of the DVDs.
She makes stealing look easy.

Last week I saw her pick off pieces of your Thorntons easter chick
and melt hold them on her tongue.
She stayed an hour, sat down at your desk
produced a clean sheet of paper and wrote

‘today is in the bathroom
repeat wiping the faeces of yesterday
off its face.’

She road side held it up in her hand
while she tried on some earrings in front of your new mirror.
I made note of the way she angled her cheek bones
to make her face look like a longboat.

Strange things happen sometimes,
at Christmas, plane trails snapped clean
in front of my section of sky view,
I wrote to the police, they sent me some forms.

Yours sincerely,

Street sharer

Dear nosy note writer,

I appreciate your taking the time to chart the activities of my housemate.

I don’t really mind her sock shuffling in my things,
she has strange habits, such as black painting bits of old board
and chalking, lines that say ‘I sample living.’

Many people find her attitude breath taking,
say she has no respect for me or other things which are not her shuffling
or her longboat conversations about thievery and watching.

I think the plane trails snapped clean
are airfield line ups practising
mallard dive bombs over my back yard.

While you were away
it snowed on the left hand half of the street
but if you were looking from your side it would be your right.

The cars on one side were powdered and sleeping
on the other
red, black and yellow M & Ms waiting to be eaten.

I thank you and ask you to stop watching,
Only write me back if you can use your metaphors succinctly.

Sincerely,

Girl across the street

Dear girl across the street,

It seems we like similar things.
I saw you last week
head tocking out to what I figured to be
Elastica, maybe ‘I wanna be a King of Orient-ah’?

I know you say you don’t mind your housemate sneaking
but last night she was in your room while you were sleeping,
she took your special edition Spiritualised mug from the book shelf.
I think if you look you’ll find there are marks from all the tea.

I have started to find her irritating.
She doesn’t look so well in your jeans,
she watches me
from behind the slat blind curtain.

I’m sure I saw her swinging a tampon on its string over your clean bedding.

Yours truly,

Street sharer

Nosy note writer,

I can’t keep having you writing such strange things.
I am freaked out by all the creeping that goes on in this street,
you know the children at number three
watch out for neighbours lugging Tesco bags
and then sprint out to help carry the bulk of tins and sweet things.
I’ve seen them pocket whole packets of Boasters and Penguins.

I sometimes carry my things in Tesco bags
just to let them know I’m onto it.

You need to buy some sort of screen for your loo window,
we see you reading in side profile.
I think this is what my housemate may have been meaning
when she wrote

‘today is in the bathroom
repeat wiping the faeces of yesterday
off its face.’

We have implemented a new house policy ‘stealing isn’t evil’,
I extend this to writing
and hope you don’t mind me borrowing
for a new story I am writing.

Yours faithfully,

Yard girl.

Dear girl across the street,

I say this kindly cos you seem to know some things,
but you are most frustratingly inconsistant.
I tried on four clothes combinations today
and you didn’t even look over at me
when I bent the edges of my straw hat
down to my cheeks and made like Bo Peep.

I think you and your housemate are sheep,
stealing is thieving
there is no romance attached to watching
two people possession dancing without meaning.

I doubt you know what thinking is.
And as for meaning, I mean it when I write that
You are evil.

I can no longer wee without seeing you smirking at my book choice,
or joking that today is stuck in a nappy negotiating complex with yesterday.

What you did with the string at the window made me sick,
Barbie has clothes for a reason.

I end this correspondence with my room in pieces.

Street sharer

Dear street sharer,

I am glad you noticed all the exhibits.
My housemate just told me that when she was six
she left loose nooses hanging from trees
and used to go play at drinking doll house tea
while her brothers scrambled around on their scratchy knees.
She hoped they would run into the rings.

She could imagine being the only one
when her parents took her out for lessons in life sampling
a trip to the coastline or a sculpture trail.
She suspects they would have given her babushka dolls
and wooden boxes to keep her life scripts in.

We have made you a gift,
please find it bubble wrapped in front of the drain.
In case you were wondering
it’s an old club click counter
in which we have replaced the numbers with letters.

We left it on blank
but it can give varied ways of saying

OYOU
9WHO
ITRY
22TO
STOP
44ME
IN55
NEW7
8RED
COAT
STAY
AWAY
0WE0
HAVE
0YOU
NOTE