Intruder!

I hide in the cupboard

Between the cornflakes

Below the spluttering boiler

Above the milk lake.

It’s dark in the cupboard

There’s a small crack of light

I peak through the slit

At the man in my sight

He’s scoffing my toast

The crumbs fall on the floor

He chews and he snuffles

And then gets up for more.

He wears my grey dressing gown

He’s fat and he’s mad

He scratches his bottom

And then sniffs his left hand.

He uses the shower gel

And leaves on the tap

Flecks the mirror with toothpaste

And never replaces the cap

I hide in this cupboard

And creep out by night

I piss in a flower pot

Forever planning my flight

But he’s going next Tuesday

He says it’s just for a while

Pubic hair in my bathroom

Unspeakably vile.

I can’t let him find me,

I wish he were gone.

This trespassing usurper,

My brother John.