Before This Day

Dad is painting window frames at the top of the house
Mum steadies the ladder with a slippered foot
My sister cannot bring herself to pour poison on the ants
Working their way frantically up the inside corners
Of this soon-to-be-a-home

I run through grass that has grown high above my head
I am a million miles away
I have no memories, I have no memories before this day

Cup of tea for the plumber, cup of coffee for the builder
Brother sister father mother
Each in love with one another
Somewhere, a whistling kettle
I meet the world and the world is a stinging nettle

Mortar bees living in the bricks
There may or may not be a snake in the compost heap
And the neighbour's cat is white and quite insane
Collarless, aggressive and unnamed
And I have never seen so many sheep
I have never seen so many cows
I was born to a family a little while ago
I was born to myself just now