a huge cat

steps over the horizon

she licks the blue from the sky

she licks away the clouds

she laps up the seas

and mountains

I see stars

behind her

shining in a black sky

as the cat gets closer

she licks up everything

in her path

towns

cities

farms

lakes

forests

factories

roads

ranges of hills

expanses of snow

regions of rock

dwellings of humans

the cat keeps licking until

she gets to our back fence

then she pauses

her vast eyes

look down at the spiders

she breathes on them

blue foam

issues from her nostrils

and settles like a blanket

on the spiders

the blue foam rises

it floats through my window

and falls like fluff on the spiders

when the foam evaporates

all the spiders have gone

my bedroom is clean of them

the house is clear

the garden is sweet and clean

with its normal bright colours

Mum's neat rose bushes

Dad's neat lawn

Francie's sandpit

with the celery top pine

anti-cat cover

I panic

will that make the giant cat

angry?

but the giant cat has gone

in her place

is a picture like the sun

in one of Francie's

kindergarten drawings

a big yellow circle

a smiley face

with lines sticking out from it

the sun gets so bright

I can't look at it

the heat hurts my face

and I turn away

I open my eyes a crack

and see my shadow

on the bedroom wall

at first my shadow is black

then all sorts of colours

swirl within it

the colours and shapes

sort themselves out

into a picture of me

I'm tall and strong

with dazzling orange eyes

and beautiful green clothes

suddenly I become that person

and stride off the wall

and step out of the house

into the garden

I lean over the fence

into outer space

I put my hand into it

and feel the cold

my hand is blue

with icicles dripping off it

I place the hand

between my legs

when my hand is warm again

I draw it out

I'm holding

a painter's palette

with dobs of vivid colour

shimmering on it

I take a paint brush

reach over the fence

and start to paint

a fresh world

it's a new start

a brand new day