tarot decks
How many futures do I have?
a whole crate full
© Rachel Green April 2026
Lesson Learned
life lessons never stop
and the one that hit me most
is the one I learned most recently.
I watch too much television
a habit I developed
when I was very young
and there were only three channels
and it all closed down
because the BBC had no taped shows
and couldn't pay the night staff.
In those days there was no Sesame Street;
no Blue's Clues or Counting House
and my father told me I'd rot my brain
with Jackanory or Pogle's Wood
but I watched everything
including, in the days before computers;
when Apollo missions were calculated on lined pads
by black women who weren't allowed
to used toilets for white people
(the more things change, the more
things stay the same),
the Open University;
late nights and early mornings;
dry seminars given by old professors
for people too old to not have jobs.
Now I watch old shows
recorded and sown online
and an old episode of Hoarders
(Brit or American, I don't recall)
was professionals clearing the hoard
of a man who died, unloved,
his life as worn-down as his words,
who drowned in his own house
with lungs full of microplastics.
and the lesson I learned
was that at the end of life
everything that gave you meaning
and marked you as a person who lived
can fit in a shoe box
and a small one at that.
© Rachel Green April 2026
