i just wanted some cereal!

The linoleum in grandfather’s kitchen is speckled and cold.
It clacks softly
Beneath my sandals.
The curtains are
yellow
The cabinets are almost
Yellow
But I can never quite get the bottom cabinet to shut.
It always swings back
out
after I’ve walked away
So that dad knows I’ve opened the cap’n crunch.
The box is red red red with blue and yellow--
Primary colours--
Lined up between the bleached white of corn flakes
That cabinet door always gives me away.
The way to shut it,
I discovered,
Is to slam it--
Hard--
So the wood will stick.
But dad can hear the slam
And he knows
I’ve opened the cap’n crunch.
So before he can come downstairs,
I slam
And run out the back door.
The cellardoor is next to the back door.
It never closes either.
A musty chilled smell climbs up the linoleum stairs
And stops only at the walls.
I take it outside with me as I run
And the glass in the back door rattles.
Now dad knows I’m gone.