Tinkering Among the Machines I wonder what kind of game you thought you were playing with all those bodies. Just another part of a machine to be tinkered with, moved around,  broken...

    Occupation We try to fettle the spaces around us –  the pile of books on a bedside table; the chronology of an artist’s work in a gallery; the lay-out of fields and roads, hedged and...

    Nursing Games The nurses took position for the hundred metre hurdle, each focusing on the patient bedded at the end of their lane. The call bell was the signal that sent them running,...

    Profile Piece In the film even you have a tidy hairline. An interviewer could skip along it, selecting driftwood and precious stones that only peck at the skin when thrown across deep...

      Spring, 1942 from a letter by R.S. Thomas Morning glittering with April light, warblers sing in the wood, untroubled by the shadow that sullies my spirit. Then your gift...

      Sun Room The builders dug the foundations, flooded them with concrete. I watched it set under a red sky. They brought in glass, stacked it high, a lofty frame to catch the sun...

    17 years Our mouths are no longer in love they forget their place what they used to be. After rising I pair lonely hellos spend the day elsewhere although you left some time before...

    Colporteur He abandons his car where it exhausts all its motion. First of his disciple, a goat, takes a mouthful of handbills. Hours later he can hear all the literature rumbling. He...

  The Milky way’s Horoscope A milky way, curious of her day’s horoscope, Reads astrology headlines. Puzzled, she lights a sacred camphor lamp Reads again. Still unsatisfied, she sprinkles some...

    The Cowry Shell How many palms have clasped the measled back, thumbed their way along the blue-grey watermark to negotiate three sacks of corn or a new bride? Little womb of the sea,...