10th April 2026

 

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