In the House With No Doors
Sarah Kay
we have given up on knocking.
Incoming! we say, with our eyes lowered for modesty,
or, Hello! or sometimes, Sorry, sorry!
You have to pass through everyone’s bedroom
to get to the kitchen. We only have two bathrooms.
As a courtesy, nobody will poop while you are showering,
but they might have to do their makeup or shave
if they are in a rush, if we have somewhere to be,
so you can recognize every person by their whistle
through a wet shower curtain, you haven’t seen your own face
on an unfogged mirror in weeks. It doesn’t matter,
self-consciousness has no currency here.
If you were nosy, I suppose the little bathroom trashcans
would spill their secrets to you, but why bother,
privacy is a language we don’t speak.
Someone is always awake before you,
the smell of coffee easing you into a today
they have already entered,
a bridge you will never need to cross first,
and no matter how latenight your owl,
there is always someone still awake
to eat popcorn with, to whisper your daily report to,
to compare notes on what good news you each caught in your nets.
In bed, you say, Goodnight! in one direction
and someone says it back, then turns and passes it,
so you fall asleep to the echo of goodnights down the long hallway
’til it donuts its way back around to your pillow.
Someone is doing a load of laundry,
if anyone wants to add some extra socks?
Someone is clearing the dishes,
someone has started singing Gershwin in the backyard
and you can’t help but harmonize,
and for a moment what you always hoped was true
finally is: loneliness has forgotten your address,
french toast browning on the stovetop,
the sound of everyone you love
clear as the sun giggling through the window,
not even a doorknob between you.
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Ulysses (Project: Eden's Garden) Stimboard (with dark academia and owl themes) for Anon
x x x / x x / x x x
[Image description: a 9 gif stimboard; from left to right.
First line: A close-up gif of someone using an antique typewriter and pressing the keys. A gif of an owl rotating candle holder spinning around a lit tealight candle and casting shadows on a wall. And a gif panning slowly over a desk of antique trinkets (such as a pocketwatch and spectacles), the the gif jumpcuts to someone cradling the pocketwatch in their hand and flipping open the cover to reveal the clock.
Second line: A close-up of an antique metal bookmark in the shape of an owl being tilted, the bookmark has a glass compartment with a pressed flower inside that shines in the light. A still image of Ulysses from the fan-game Project: Eden's Garden. And a close-up gif of someone using a metal owl-shaped door knocker.
Third line: A gif of someone pulling open the wooden flap-section of an antique bureau downwards to reveal books and trinkets inside. A gif of an owl rotating candle holder spinning around a lit tealight candle and casting shadows on a wall. And a gif of someone holding a thick antique book in their hand and rotating it, bookshelves with fossils and an animal skull in the background.
End of image description.]
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People really knock on the door and expect you to just go and open it lol
They don’t say anything, just pound on the door, ring the doorbell and make no effort to announce themselves.
If I do not expect you, please tell me who is knocking on the door, or I will act like no one is home and you will be left outside.
Once, my dad walked over after dark (my parents live on the same block) and pounded on my door very hard and loud, saying absolutely nothing. I sat on my couch and a few minutes after the person pounding on my door went away, my dad texted asking if I was home. And I told him that I was, and that he needs to announce himself next time or text ahead.
If I don’t know you, you don’t need to know if I’m home or not and I’m not fucking answering the door.
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I always respond when I hear a knocking sound that I know isn’t a person requesting entry at a door.
I used to say “who is it?” That slowly turned into just “come in”
It feels a little reckless but at least they’re knocking
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