Triplets
I was a text-book full-term home-birth breast-fed sling-worn well-loved baby. I loved food, was sturdily built and my mother says I had ‘womanly’ hips and a waist from a [...]
Take Macbeth and Shove it
30 years ago, I would have told you that Macbeth, in fact any play or poem by Shakespeare, was a complete waste of time. Admittedly I was 17 years [...]
After School Anxiety
Chapped skin under a scalding shower, Beth rubbed at a patch of mud on her calf. The games mistress ticked names off the register as the girls filed through [...]
A Murder of Crows
The recruiter was well spoken, his accent barely betraying that English was not his mother tongue. He had several deep scars across his hands and arms. I was sure [...]
Kill Your Idols
I joined a Writer’s Group to drink red wine with friends. I would use words like hubris, eclectic and hegemony so that it was clear to them I knew [...]
Coffee
In the city, strangers pass close enough to catch the smell of coffee or cigarettes on their breath or the perfume of intercourse as they hurriedly make their way [...]
La nuit (The night) aka -The universe is out to get you
“We shall be notes in that great Symphony Whose cadence circles through the rhythmic spheres, And all the live World's throbbing heart shall be One with our heart, the [...]
The Poacher’s Knot
I can’t sleep. Again. I’ve tried all of the techniques that I’ve been collecting in the semi-lucid delirium that has become the day in between my wakeful nights. “Relax. [...]
The Quarter Century Chronicles
One EMAIL FROM MICHAEL MORGAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS (LONDON) --------- Forwarded message --------- From: Michael Morgan <mmorgan63@aapress.com> Date: Tue, May 4, 2021 at 08:56 AM Subject: Re: Quarter Century brief [...]
The Memory of Trees
“Dad, do you believe that there is such a thing as a soulmate?” For fuck sakes, I think. I pride myself on having a decent command of the English [...]