Where does your British accent come from?

A little town called St. Albans, home of St. Alban’s
Cathedral. Stephen Hawking went to school there.
And my sister still lives there.
Rinse

I’m a native Chicagoan. St. Albans must be very quaint.

It is. My sister’s thatch-roofed cottage is two-hundred years old.
Rinse

That’s amazing!

But it’s very small. There’s a tiny spiral staircase,
small chairs, mini-kitchen, exposed beams.
People must have been smaller back then.
I’m five foot ten. I can touch the ceiling beams.
They have a piece of furniture they call a sofa–
I call it a love seat.
Rinse

I would fit right in. I’m barely five feet.
Do you miss it? St. Albans?

I get back there. But it’s too small for me.
I like lots of space, the kind of space in the Midwest.
Rinse

I picture elves and fairies there. And an English
Garden, dripping with flowers—roses, wisteria, ivy.

Yes, there’s a beautiful English garden—like a postcard.
But no elves or fairies.
They do have a satellite dish and room on the street for parking.