Super Mario And so it began For me back in seventy eight On a thick set T.V. Way out past bedtime. The commentator’s sotto voice The colours, so vivid Splashed on green, orange...

    The Unforgotten Twin By the window, a wheelchair turns its back on the beds to give a birthday moment of normality. How old are you, Olive? says Nurse. I’m sixty eight the wheelchair...

      They Don't Last Long Here They don't last long here Walking on wet leaves The impatient traffic Pinning them back Then pushing them rudely Into untrimmed hedges Their faces are...

      Sun bears in Edinburgh Zoo Cold, so cold, the Coke tin sears the fingertips Knife wind slits throats bloodlessly Past the cartoon restaurant, soiled by cold chips on plastic...

      A Rock, Three Seagulls, You A reason to be there, I suppose, casting a line for snappers, the swell rising and retreating at our feet. Three seagulls came to watch, crowning the...

      Litter Bug at Hayle Across much astonishing sand I chased as it flew over sun-dazzled breeze. It was a tinkerbell thing, sparkle-dancing deliberate lines, faster, faster; a...

      The Pilcrows They came, in place of the Person from Porlock, in swarming ranks on my typescript. They stormed across the verse tale’s infancy, blew its moment of arrival, not...

      Hellsteeth His house is sinking The tin roof crumbling He was springtime Up on rotten ladders Painting it red A balancing act Juggling brush, can, and glass I used to sit on...