Sabre   Budget jeans, and stubble, a lean face more bone than meat is all I remember of the grown-up enigma in our dorm, reeking of serious, stunted in manner, yet sure of...

      Cast List   SISTER MARY is fatter than she should be. As head of the mission she is used to having her own way. She has seen the ravages of war. Her eyes are bright. When...

    Hymn of Rain The quality of mercy? You must be joking. I begin as ice. I come as veil or wraith, a whisper of Spanish lace masquerading as cage. I sleep in your bones, your bed. I leak...

      Foal   The new foal totters on legs a spider would not care to own. It doesn’t yet know what legs are for, nor how to manage them.   Only knows it wants the warm grey...

      The Night Before   A bed by a motorway, close by hospital A sheet for cover, diesel-thick air. An open window, door-slams and fried onions, Dusk as long-winded as the heat...

      I Slept with Raymond Chandler   He was terse to the point of silence. No snoring. No tussles over the duvet. He didn't kick or lash out. Like a couple of babes, we slept...

      Winning/Losing   In Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, plastic dots determined whether you would climb or slide, and draughts where rules came out of nowhere the wooden discs...

      Prison Scenes   Take a piece of satin, blue sheen, appliqué to cool shadows under a generosity of willow. So many ducks this year. You’ll have your work cut out to stitch...

        Possum   On the news tonight was a woman who evaded marriage by pretending to be dead. She could have said no, so this was a clear, if clearly indirect,...

      Ghost   That Autumn he returned to clear the house, but found it full of immovable things.   His sister asleep in her cot. His father raking cinders in the grate. His...