A poem by Talia Randall.

Household

Father’s beard is a swarm of bees.Brother can’t remember which teenage mutant turtle is which.Sister builds an igloo out of choc-ices.Mother pays for everything.

The stray cat visits and eats tuna off the posh china.Father calls the cat Jeremy.

Father sees himself in Jeremy.Sister sees herself in brother.Brother sees himself in the TV.Mother realises she left herself in the old country.

On the night they get cablethey invite the neighbours round for a séance.

They rent the house from a giantwho sometimes thinks about eating them and sometimes forgets they exist.One day they buy it(with money, they had run out of beans).For breakfast they eat lard and avocado sandwichesAnd Jeremy does the weekly bills, “too much on toilet-paper” he says.