It’s 6.18am and you are looking at
reproduction William de Morgan tiles
and Morris & Co fabrics on John Lewis
picking out the spun gold lemon-and-bayleaf linen
you will want to turn into curtains
for your little Arts & Crafts flat
in your little Arts & Crafts village
with your little concrete-and-brambles garden
where you are going to build a tiny greenhouse
full of sweet peas and strawberries
and mulberry saplings and miniature orange trees
and lavender lavender lavender.
Soon you should get up
and eat breakfast, and feed the cat
and hold your landlords’ baby
and pretend to jump when the toddler “surprises” you
and wash your hair, and collect that camera
which costs too much to get mended.
In the sun some see a screaming woman
shadowed by seven descending dragon heads;
for months the swans have been dying
and the sea has been spitting up dead fish.
But you have to catch a bus to see your family
and perhaps it will be a beautiful day.