Reading One: February 28
Be A Good Host
Welcome the fear, the loneliness, the judgements, the boredom. Welcome the growling, the grieving and
the fear of missing out. Welcome the hope, welcome the lack of hope.
Welcome the monsters.
Slowly, let them find the seat they like.
It may be your favourite chair, your lap, or that space behind the fridge. Welcome them.
They may smell of lavender, or sewage, of sweet sunrises, or the entrails of lost species. They may,
having been welcomed in to your home like this, become very very
quiet all of a sudden. And some,
perhaps, one or two may begin to scream.
Be a good host.
Bear with them. Make tea. Pour out the last of
your elderberry vodka. And yes, those biscuits you’ve been saving
for the apocalypse? Them too.
Be a Good Host, because now, the thing is, you’re in this together.
Laws are being passed to stop you escaping. Be A Good Host.
Welcome these ones you so unwittingly silenced.
The monsters are longing for you. They want you to notice them, to listen
to their stories, to play with their tails, to let them wrap you
in the greatest of hugs, to tend to their matted hair,
as if you had all the time in the world.
Because maybe you do.
Be a good host.
Let your welcome be timeless, where no guest
ever feels you wanting them to leave, no matter
how out of your depth you feel.
Be that ‘guest house’ Rumi spoke of.
Let the ones you’ve been holding at bay be your
teachers, your lovers, your saviours, the bearers of new recipes,
the writers of new love poems and radical manifestos.
Be a good host.
Welcome the monsters.
Toni Spencer
March 2020