Wrecked

Wake late

Nothing clean

Wear yesterday’s undies

Crushed uniform

Sister’s socks

She screams at me

Mum screams at me

We scream at one another

We’re running late

Jammed in bumper-to-bumper traffic

Kiss Mum goodbye, no way

Across the empty playground

Running, I drop

The paper Mache dinosaur

That took four hours

Last night

Of hard, hard work

My project

Now it’s crushed, like me

Late for assembly

Everyone stares

Teachers’ eyebrows are raised

And classes haven’t even begun.

© Dianne Bates

(Published in Our Home is Girt by Sea)

•  Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #26