At Morrison’s
He tells me this is how it feels to come back from the dead; a jolt, like tripping over the raised corner of a paving slab, tasting dirt and grit and finding how strong gravity is. I tell Jim I need specifics I need specifics. He starts talking quantum physics and equations, how Einstein’s formulation that E=MC2 can be adapted to suit any scenario.
Take E=M for example, provable as soon as M gets knocked on its arse sideways. It needs a visionary to see things others don’t, he slurs, like when trees fall – how their vibrations travel through the universe in waves beyond a mind like mine. This is what he was driving at when he screamed break on through to the other side that first time; sound amplified by cables and magnets, able to project a voice beyond any parameters available at the point of utterance. And on the way out, he murmurs, make sure you close the doors behind you.
Matt West has an MA in Creative and is Southampton’s Poet Laureate for Children. He is variously published online and in print, with credits including The South, Interpreter’s House, The Stares Nest, and Nuggets and Nutshells.