Scott in the Burnt House Even brick may burn, and bone – Fire has an elemental power. Then stay in the burned out house. Rescue what you can from the ravages For what can survive the...

      Wipers Sometimes he writes for no reason. Yeah, you think, I've seen the type. Drunk late at night, bottle drained, some fuzzy lexicon scrabbled in his brain. You'd be wrong....

  To Rabbi Goldberg: a love letter My mother, the convert, was horrified when I took to wearing a crucifix; you laughed, same as when I said I’d decided not to believe in god. I said that Shug...

      Civilization The bleaching reek of sulphur remains but I have manufactured strings enough for a month or two.  With each shorter day the solar panels work a little less and...

Backlash ‘There’s a bit of a backlash these days,’ he said, ‘people moving away from the screen and returning to paper & pen.’ Emergency procedures are in effect that are aimed as much below the...

Blood Roots One day I will be a tree When I am buried and my body rots I will be eaten by worms and those little bugs that always seem to be in a hurry When I am buried and my body rots I am going...

      Sleepers You watch his punch-bag uvula quiver as the air he snores tries fresh combinations: left hook, jab, lunge.  A word search lies part filled in his copy of Puzzler...

    Bowls Fine for an hour, then dull, despite a summer sun. Green tedium. But do beware, if nudged a bit, this game is good at slowly rolling on and on and on: little genuflections -...

      Fathers’ Day Just for a moment there you had me. Fathers’ Day, and I suddenly thought, I’ll give you a ring, that’ll surprise you. Well, it would have done: you’d been dead...

      Knuckle In front of the hyena enclosure I want to hold your hand. I don’t care about your other family watching. I stand alongside, stoop slightly to your eight year old height...