There’s something about certain deaths which, in that first instant of an encounter, whisper, ‘Come on, take me home with you…’ They’re not usually broken nor dumped but rather abandoned, possibly out-grown (they are often toys), offering a glimmer of hope, the possibility of being taken up again and loved.
Dead luggage has really, um, died off over the past couple of years. That seems weird, when you think about it. It’s like we’re living in opposite world. In a normal world, you’d think that, at a time when nobody can travel, the streets would be filled with abandoned suitcases and wheelie bags. Why hang […]
Nothing to see here. Move right along. Your interest will not be piqued. There will be no arousal of curiosity, nothing to make you wonder ‘Well, I never….’ Because what we have here is a box. And not just any old box – which might just possibly be slightly intriguing – but a box which […]
An Abandoned Post Come home Susie. Don’t take your appetite, I might call it love Except cats don’t feel Love, just hot and cold Hunger and thirst, Such portable needs, Up and down the street Until they are met. Did I not please you? Even though you are My cat, I see you now Sitting […]
Beans bags have the same organic quality as futons but are rather more sac-like in appearance. They tend to slump and sag as if on the verge of letting it all go. Even the ones stuffed tight enough to stand upright cannot escape that sense of impending collapse. They look as if they would be […]
It’s time to do the right thing by these teddies and bring them together. Find a common ground for them; a teddy dump. A bear post. When I first encountered dead teddies three years ago, it was something of a shock. How could anybody do such a thing? Then it happened again and it was […]
I can’t help wondering if these crutches are here because someone threw them away. No, I realise they have been discarded, left behind, abandoned. What I mean is that somebody was hobbling along, slowly making their way up the hill on their crutches when, suddenly, they heard the call to “Throw away your crutches” and […]
I love these discards; broken, worn-out, grown-out. Partly it is the cuteness; the chubby bodies, the tiny monster wheels (if that makes sense), the knobbly controls and handles. Cuteness is all about disproportion – the gangly legs, the over-large eyes – that somehow confounds our expectations without appearing too disturbing. Partly too it is the […]
It’s an empty doll’s pram. I mean, the pram is empty, not the doll; the doll is just absent, not vacant. Feel free to fill it with memories and emotions, conjecture, a story line or two. It’s designed to be played with, to carry a load of make-believe. Seeing an abandoned pram, it’s hard not […]
You know, the thought occurs to me that maybe all this writing about the abandoned detritus of our lives is just a tad obsessive. I mean, what is it except an attempt to recuperate the excess, that which has been discarded, and tidy it away in a nice, neat blog? Despite appearances, it is not […]
About a year ago, I kicked off this series with an entry about dead Christmas trees being put out in the lane for recycling. There’s no prospect of mulching for this one, no wood-chipping or slow decomposition. This one is for keeps. It hasn’t been put out for recycling, a guilt-free discard in the knowledge […]