Your screwed-up clothes are sitting in flimsy charity bags. Letters, turned to ash, like the empty promises they contained. My phone, scrubbed clean of photographs. Yet I still see you, haunting every crevice of my day. And at night, you innocently stroll around my dreams, oblivious of my nightmares. […]
Crouching behind damp reed baskets, she nervously watches the armed sailors patrol. Before dawn, hunger had forced her to clamber aboard. She stole three pieces of brown fruit from the galley and stored them deep inside her filthy skirt. Her daughter will eat like the captain tonight. More sword brandishing[…]
I watch the onion peel tumble slowly into the bin. The crinkled, purple skins settle on the red roses I’d shoved in there hours earlier. The two colours sit uneasily together. Crumpled white tissues, caught on the thorns, create the perfect backdrop. There in the trash, lies the most beautiful thing I[…]
They ceremoniously tied the knot, on a sunny afternoon, in St Augustine’s. She never dreamt that it would come undone. But, as the months passed, she became unraveled and her nerves frayed. Violence was always close at hand. And foot. Today, she had gathered her tools of defence; a stool[…]
Mum whispered, ‘Uncle John will be staying with us. He’s lost his way.’ I decided to help him find where he was going. I gift wrapped a map for him. Then, days later, taped my compass back together and showed him how to use it. Last week, I bought him[…]
He reaches across my face, to accept the drink. His muscular, hairless arm is very close to my lips. I gently blow a warm breath over it and innocently close my eyes. Settling back, we share the sticky arm rest. A gentle push marks my territory. The lack of resistance[…]
When I moved here, you were very small. Not able to reach the open lock on the gate. Now, you tower over me, leaving me in your shade. A hidden, incurable disease has suddenly turned your height into a danger. It has been left to me to bring you down[…]
Aesop sits motionless; watching. The fox creeps towards the vines. The frustrated mammal fails to reach the juicy reward. A fallen grape is deliberately ignored. With its tail held high, the fox disappears into the tall grass. Aesop wonders if there’s a new fable here, but decides that foxes aren’t[…]
Warm baths on cold nights. Sea flowing between sunburnt toes. Spraying siblings with a hose. Catching minnows in the canal. Drifting on park ponds. Bombing friends at the lido. Wild swimming in northern lakes. Today, these former joys have evaporated. Wading through the rising slurry, I splash my way from[…]
I’ve prepared this letter so many times. My head is blasted by draughts. During endless night-time silences, I find the perfect words to convey my regrets and sorrow. Tears stain my pillow. Yet, in the morning, my fingers remain untouched by ink. Those midnight phrases, like dreams, fade into an[…]