My parents moved into their Chapeltown Cohousing project and I wrote this for the celebrations.
You have found your common ground
Common sense removed the fence
Transformed common muck into a common house
With a communal garden and a communal mouse!
(Or is that mouse a source of tension? Is it still ok to mention?)
There’s a Prunus Commonalis (pear tree) on your common land
Where common chamomile rewilds and sunflowers stand
It’s not so commonplace, actually it’s rare
To jointly plan a space to live and share
There’s nothing common about your domiciles
It’s common knowledge that you’ve got beautiful tiles
A community dream with common cause
Gets built into reality
after
an
uncommonly
long
pause
(13 years!)
Comment t’appelles tu? ChaCo. You!
It’s ‘The rainbow street’, somebody tell Deliveroo
Because it’s time to eat and drink and cheer
Celebrate that you’re all here
Through your groundbreaking story we’ve been taught
That we’ve all got more in common than we thought
C’mon!
©tamingtheoctopus 2023