AA Milne: poem for today

Halfway down the stairs

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair where I sit:
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top:
So this is the stair where I always stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up, and isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery, it isn't in the town:
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
"It isn't really anywhere! It's somewhere else instead!"

by A.A. Milne

The house I lived in as a teenager had stairs up to my room. I used to sit exactly in the middle when talking on the phone (the only phone was on the wall opposite the stairs); when talking with my mother while she ironed (it was the utility room); when I wanted to hear what was happening in the rest of the house but not be right there.