A sweeping saga remembered!

We were living in a tied-cottage (just a house really!)
but it came with the job,
and come the end of term,
my husband brightly suggested he’d thought to
borrow the school’s chimney brush and poles.
My heart dropped.
End of term should bring some relaxation -–
what mess was going to result now?
– surely, surely not a good idea!

The surrounds of the hearth were cleared well,
the brushes and poles were screwed together,
and up they went, and up.
Then pulled down –
down they came
– minus the brush.

Consternation, consultation with neighbour teacher –
probably he had experience,
but now he seemed rather more amused than we were.
Does one drill hopefully into the chimney of a rented house
somewhere, to see if the brush was stuck at that point?

After cogitations, a children’s rake was attached to the poles,
and hopefully pushed up to try to unstick the brush head.
The poles were again retracted,
now minus the rake also.

More discussions:
nervously a luggage claw ‘spider’ was attached
and again the poles pushed up.
Something seemed to be happening!
so someone went outside, and
out of the chimney shot, at speed,
a child’s rake, flying off some distance away –
I think, the chimney brush and ‘spider’
fell nearer, interlocked.

It was a cleanly swept chimney
and the living room wasn’t too bad either!

[IP: a clean sweep]