A poem by Roger Robinson

And crow
is squawking at 6.00 am
in the velveteen black
of a winter morning:
I have already had a cold
morning shower of rain
and fed my offspring
a diet of worms and wet slugs.
Meet the sun before it rises;
master your morning.
Grab that wooden spoon
and stir that gruel
for your family’s breakfast.
Master your day,
you lazy human bastard.

*

From the TS Eliot Prize-winning A Portable Paradise (Peepal Tree Press, 2019) © Roger Robinson, reproduced by permission of Peepal Tree Press. You can buy a copy (£9.99) here, and we enthusiastically recommend that you do.