You don't buy furniture

You go from unfurnished house to unfurnished house

rarely more than a year in each

often not your fault

but blame becomes less relevant with age.

The person in the pub whose chair collapses underneath them

has no chance to explain how wobbly the legs were

because of all the laughing:

a room of people thinking that could so easily

have been them, embarrassed on the floor

and there are people who go their whole lives

never buying a settee.