Sending Letters to the Devil Sending letters to the devil by bottlemail, cork secured forcefully thirteen times (for luck). We've been conferring by waves of blazing air, discussing our plans...

  My Two Fathers   When my father removes his skin he steps to one side and tidies the old skin away with a dustpan and brush. He wants nothing more than not to make a spectacle but my...

      Camber   My nose is pressed close to the mirror but it is as if I am looking at something far far away, past the cathedral and the factory and the fields we once lolled on...

    Clot   Awake. The road is a tunnelled sea of black-red bumpers,   circulation thick and stop-start. Granite arches of yellow narrow the lanes, from Ulnar   to Basilicus,...

      Mismatch I was only the French Maid now and again in a little black dress, stockings and duster. She was ‘Brigitte’ and I couldn’t do the accent. I’d have liked to be Ursula...

      Mrs Gilhooly, Dancing Every so often she climbs the stair. She goes to birl, to fit the flair, to wind the gramophone on an upright chair, and lilts full throttle through her...

  Alone At Last When you die you discover that actually, surprisingly, there was only ever you. You were your own mother, your own father, your own siblings and your own best friend. You were...

      Small Talk Doorbell; the first guests, an hour early for dinner. You’re not ready. Hair still damp from the shower, table devoid of plates and cutlery, oven pre-heating, wine...

      String I went around the neighbourhood collecting bits of string. I tied them together until I had a long enough piece then attached a tin can to either end. I gave one to my...