do you remember the floor?

do you remember the floor

of the dining/sitting room in the old home?

we lived there for nearly ten years, remember?

until mum left ‘coz she could take it no more

you don’t, i bet

it had little chips set in dark translucent cement

polished. with little colourful stones. split

into squares by flat bars of ground glass 

i’d lie on that sofa on my stomach

and stare at it for hours                                                                                                         

my face a foot from it

looking for shapes in the stone chips

everytime they fought, or scolded you, or shouted at me

or weren’t talking to each other for they were too angry

i’d go slump onto the sofa and stare at that floor

that was my escape, what was yours?