In the end we were grateful
we’d installed the pull-up bar in the hall
and cycled to the gym on days off.

We snibbed the back door, but it opened outwards
so there was no way to block it from inside.
They were slow but determined

as they pushed through
the gate from the alleyway
usually held shut by half a breeze block

probably sniffed us out
from the old mattress we had left in the shed
stained before it was ours

but smelling mostly of our recent insomnias
our months of tossing and turning
across its crumpled springs.

You’d bought a vintage G&M cricket bat
for nostalgic reasons really
but kept it by the bed just in case.

When the lock on the door wouldn’t hold any longer
you took the bat to the heads of the uninvited
grabbed my hand and ran.