A House As Big As You Want It To Be

What do you mean

You’re tired of staying home?

Why, don’t you know

This house

Is as big as you want it to be?

Look here in this room

Where we keep the Shower Kingdom

Full of the Bathizens

Made of soap

Who run and hide

Whenever they hear you come in

This is the biggest place

The Bathizens have ever seen

Why, they’re so small

That to them

The bathtub is the size

Of Cincinnati!

And that’s to say nothing

Of the Sink Suburb

Where the Bathizens go to live

Once they’re tired

Of the hustle and bustle

Of the Shower Kingdom

What do you mean

Why have we never told you

About them before?

You never asked

If there were microscopic

Magnificent people

Living all over the house!

And your mother and I

Certainly can’t be expected

To answer questions

You haven’t asked

Now can we?

But do you mean to tell me

It never occurred to you

That the kitchen cabinets

Are each their own country?

Why they all have their own languages

And ways of listening

To each other

They speak Spice

And Tooperweird

And Forkaspunz

And Potsipanz

And Junk--the wildest

Of all the languages

Everyone who lives in Junk

Has clothes made of scotch tape

And elastics

And pens that don’t work anymore

Why, there’s a whole university

Right under the sink

Where all the cabinet countrymen and women

Send their best and brightest

To learn about pipes and plumbing

Down in the basement

Is the Boiler Bog

Where socks and dust bunnies

Throw a party every Friday night

And dance to the sounds

Of the chugga-chugga-chugga

That the boiler makes

Not because we keep forgetting

To get it fixed

But because socks need something

To dance to

And a coughing furnace

Is their favorite kind of music

Under your bed

Where you used to worry

About monsters

There are magpies

But a very specific species of them

That can live between floorboards

And that come out at night

To sit by the window

And protect you in case

Any flying boys come along

To try and spirit you away

To Never Neverland

So you see, what you think

Feels cramped and creaky

Is actually as big

As you want it to be

For when you get down on the floor

And look up

The tiniest room

Can seem as grand as the greatest ballroom

In the Invisible Palace

That we keep up in the attic

For a house is as big

As the hearts of those

Who live inside of it

And how lucky we are

To live in a house with you

And your heart

That’s big enough

To have every creature imaginable

Residing inside of it

And just like a heart

A house should be open

To hope and possibility

And imagination

So keep it open wide

And spy things

With a new kind of eye

Then fall asleep each night

Knowing that you’re protected

And looked after from afar

By the Bathizens

And the cabinet folks

And the dust bunnies

And the magpies

And your mother

And me

And our love for you

Is bigger than we ever thought

Any kind of love could be

But every day

We find out

There’s still room

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