Painting The Kitchen Poem by C Richard Miles

The kitchen needed painting; it had for many a year:
We splashed out and got a man in, not cheap but not too dear.
He splashed on some emulsion to make the walls gleam bright
As soon as he had finished, we gleaned another fright:
The filthy floor seemed shabby and made the room seem drab
So, after some discussion, we hopped into a cab
To check the carpet warehouse to see what they had got:
Linoleum, tile or vinyl - they had an awful lot.
We had it quickly fitted in shades of sparkly red
But after it was put in, we looked at it and said,
“The cooker looks like it’s had its chips and so does the clock;
It’s looking much too dated.” And then we got a shock:
The fridge seemed from the Ice Age: it was bought so long ago
And the un-defrosted freezer fostered heaps and drifts of snow
They all needed replacing to make the place look smart
Though we went white at the prices, we had to make a start
To refit all the white goods, at quite a princely cost.
The kitchen’s like a palace now, but, oh, the cash we’ve lost.
And now we have to ask the bank if we can have a loan.
Before we smartened up the walls, we wish that we had known
Of all the repercussions which that simple task would bring
And leaving it in all its mess may have been the smartest thing.