My dearest friend Zoe has a two year old named Poppy and it was a pleasure to spend the weekend with them recently. Young children don’t really feature in my life so it was a real novelty to play with her and witness her growing (and expansive) imagination. This is dedicated to her.

We stride through parklands of Living Room

Out to where balls can be thrown up, up to the clouds.

And the decking outside is a sandy dune

where we jump from the pier to the sea.

We swim through the treacherous high waves that is grass

and ponder the weeds that are jellyfish.

Dodging crab-like splodges of mud underfoot

We wade our way back to the front,

where rocking horse carriages wait us

so we can travel round roundabout circular roundabouts.

Later at night I sit mindless,

Popped back to reality by phones, crying and diaries,

But in your mind the play still comes like a flooding

Gabbling tales of giants up ladders

and mice sitting on top of your knee.

There’s a dolly that needs fed in her buggy

and a snack that she’d like to be aubergine.

And all of this comes from Poppy’s young head,

I wonder what dreams are like when she’s asleep in her bed!