I wake.
I need.
I wash.
I read.
There’s a crack in the wall
and two cats to feed.
In the kitchen: old tiles
and a coffee machine.
In the bathroom: cold water –
my morning routine.
The wallpaper’s peeling.
The gardener’s been.
The leak in the basement
continues; unseen.
If I clean the pool now
I can swim Christmas Eve,
but my mother is here
and my mother won't leave.
Benji is a first-year writing student and a beginner in poetry. Outside of class he works in a bookstore and writes extended fiction.