B & Q

And we have whisked down
We are redecorating
We are upholstering
We are shelving
We are slopping paint onto walls
Mine is Russian Velvet
She can't decide between Laguna Landscape
and Liberty One
I like Celestial
She dislikes ersatz stars.

The aisles are pristine.
I finger wall brackets,
Take photos for Reuben
Discuss inches to centimetres
Buy a bonsai called Alfred
I will forget to water
Remember my sister teaching me
The importance of a second coat
and how to neaten the edges tight
against the frame.

I lose her somewhere
between flooring and lighting
and I am six, head deep
in a timber jungle
wading through hinges and nails
after my dad
he has failed to miss me
and is weighing up wood stain
Nobody loves you
In B&Q.