She is right.
I should let some water out the bath.
Because.
when I rest my back up against the rim
Some will shoot over the side.
Down the tongue and groove panel
It will find the floor at a low point.
Flow into the gap of the vinyl lino prizing
away from the silicone seal,
Trickle through the floorboards,
past the fibre glass that divides us and them
through the slats to their ceiling rose centre piece
and
we aren't insured.
We will have to pay for the repair.
We can't afford to do that and we won't be able to get away.
We'd have to take a loan out.
Affordable getaways would be term time only and we can't do that.
We'd have to pay a hefty fine.
We'd have to have the radiators on sparingly and hope our lungs don't need bleeding.
Our lives would be more confined to four walls than before.
Theatres and gigs would just be posters to pass by.
Meals out would be the mercy of our rumbling stomachs.
Christmas would just be empty promises from us and a bank of shame for them
and we'd eventually lose them.
Like a marble on a run, heading, to pull the trigger of a gun, I should let some water out.
But the tops of my knees are cold and I can't get enough of what the boiler can give.
Outside the clouds are white busts of warning that longer nights are setting in.
I should let some water out. But I won't