CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

i wake up at the crack of dawn
with a woodle in my bed
a small perfectly-formed five year old
who can't be persuaded to stay just across the room
in her own perfectly servicable little bunk
even on those rare occasions
we can get the woodle off to sleep in her own bed
at some point in the middle of the night
she'll come crawling back in with us
like a puppy
oh i love watching the warm soft sleeping woodle
hands clasped together just like when she was tiny
all puckered up lips
and chipmunk cheeks
funny little snorts and groans
woodly is delicious to snuggle up against
but a lot less fun to sleep next to
on account of her nocturnal performances
which consist of endless tossing and turning
crowding one of us into a tight corner
and culminate in repeated kicking off of the duvet
which is ok for her in her warm pyjamas
but not for me shivering in just my boxer shorts
(cor blimey - secrets of the bedroom!)
apparently in korea it's quite normal
for young children to sleep in their parents' bed
until they are six or seven
i guess i should stop complaining
make the most of this father-daughter closeness
as one day in the future
the woodle will want nothing to do with us at bedtime
and in just a week
woodle and mummy will fly to sk for a month
leaving me with a whole bed to myself
be careful what you wish for...
as woodle and mummy sleep on
i migrate next door to the boxy L-shaped room
that nobody, including me, quite knows what to call any more
back when we were kids it was the play room
during the early musical experiments of my teenage years
it became the music room
a term now fallen into disuse
either the studio or the computer room
usually seems to win out
i sometimes refer to it as the office room
or even laughably as 'my office'
as it houses the desktop massage center
and it's the quietest habitable room in the house
although this fails to take account
of the interloping mrs fireseed
and her habit of installing herself for long periods
not to mention the woodle
who sometimes gets to watch a dvd
watch korean cartoons on the internet
or cover the floor with play-doh...
outside the window onto the street
another chilly july morning dawns
roofs of parked cars are wet with dew
windows of houses are closed tightly shut
the drizzle has held off
but the sky is painted a stubborn grey
welcome to england in high summer
an uncertain collage of overcast skies
showers
windy gusts
and patchy sunshine
the chilly early mornings and evenings
hold the population to ransom
so different from those sweaty korean summers
where dawn and dusk are warm and balmy
and the best time to be out n about
free of the sun's unforgiving glare
and the unremitting daytime humidity
how i used to long for temperate england
be careful what you wish for...
english weather is one thing
that poor mrs f just can't get accustomed to
she sits there disconsolately
permanently wrapped up in longjohns
winter jumper and fleece or coat...
slam!
a car door cuts bluntly through the silence
the day's first commuter has scuttled out of house
and into metal box without me even noticing
he lights up and speeds away
through still slumbering streets
a few sleepy-looking students wander past
lost in dreamy i-pod soundcsapes
it's time for me to unfurl my mat
unfold my limbs
and essay some yoga posies

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