This morning
I got up first!

I was up before my mum.
She looked so funny
with her mouth open and her hair sticking up.

I got up before Dad.
He was stretched out under the green quilt
like a crocodile.

I was awake before Ellie
sleeping silently on her tummy
and Raffles, curled up at the end of her bed.

I was even up
before the sun!

I got dressed
in my school uniform
without being asked

poured a bowl of cornflakes
all by myself
and sat down in the dark kitchen to eat

when Dad came in, rubbing his eyes,
and growled, “It’s 3 o’clock in the morning!
Go back to bed!”

© Kristin Martin 2018

This poem was first published in Countdown, Issue No. 4, The School Magazine, May 2018, and then was published again in my poetry book, To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme? (Glimmer Press, 2019).