GloPoWriMo 2019 Day 1: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

For our first (optional) prompt, let’s take our cue from O’Neil’s poem, and write poems that provide the reader with instructions on how to do something.

I don't know if this counts as instruction. Perhaps a signpost? Too much Marie Kondo on the brain maybe...

THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP

Let go of what doesn’t serve you any more, declares Marie.  
Things change: You may have outgrown it.
Keep only what brings you joy.
Evaluate as often as needed.

She evaluates the acquisitions of twenty-five years:
A stylish house. Stylish uncomfortable furniture.
A closet full of unstylish matron clothes and maiden dreams
Both policed by a mother-in-law whose word is indeed law
Whose son bows to each unreasonable demand.
Two children who treat her with contempt
Haranguing her just like father, like grandmother.
A tamed life: a subjugated sparrow
Clipped wings, bound beak, derision-hobbled feet.

Let go of what doesn’t serve you any more, declares Marie.
Keep only what brings you joy.
Twenty-five years of enforced long hair, shorn on the salon floor.
She turns from her husband’s shell-shocked face
Her mother-in-law’s hysterical bleat-threats
Pausing only to say, “He’s all yours now. Good luck hiring a maid!”
Before she walks out the door for good.
Suitcase in hand, the unaccustomed lightness of her new short hair
Lifts her steps until she floats above the sidewalk.
This, she thinks, this brings joy. This is joy.