�Everyday�

A Poem by Steven Pottle

Hurry or you’re gonna be late and miss your train
I’ve put extra milk in your tea so that you can gulp it straight down
Eat your toast as you go along
Wave you off as you sling coat down the road
Close the door and stare into the hallway…

Food shopping is easy as there’s hardly a soul here
The choice of tills is overwhelming, but you have to choose carefully as you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings
Leaving to side step the yummy Mummies jogging to lose their ‘ugly tummies’
They’ll be in the deli later piling it all back on again
I look down the hill to the house…

In the back garden the weather is blazing
And the cats are discovering new shady places to keep out of the sunshine
With an orange juice in hand and the papers laid out before me
This must seem the most complete day?
On the surface it must appear perfect, but the heaviness of the last few months
Just about breaks my back, legs, heart and leaves me blankly hopeless, soulless…an empty vessel travelling nowhere…

The same sandwich at the same time
The same idiot daytime television programme
The same old pain in the same old places
The same mind that races to dark places
The same rooms, the same rooms, the same rooms
The same walls, the same walls, the same walls, the same f*****g sunny walls!…

Here I am- the same need to escape, the same routine in the same cage…
Here I am- exactly the same…everyday.