Before This Day

Dad is painting window frames
At the top of the house.
Mom 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 is 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.
I run through grass that is grown high above my head.
I am a million miles away.
I have no memories,
I have no memories before this day.
Mortar bees living in the bricks
There may or may not be a snake in the compost heap
And the neighbor's cat is white and quite insane.
Collarless, aggressive, and unnamed.
And I have never seen so many sheep!
And I have never seen so many cows!
I was born to a family a little while ago,
I was born to myself just now.
I run through grass that is grown high above my head.
I am a million miles away.
I have no memories,
I have no memories before this day.