The Whip Hand   Believing in the possibility of showtime on the move, that the sound of circus music blaring   from the speakers on the roof means more than silver in my pocket, pegs to...

Winter at Daniel’s Hole We camped there in summer evening heat; tents pitched on tinder-dry grass, while we cooked meat and grain, tore bread to wipe our wooden bowls, to fill our bellies for sleep....

Rose was an old lady who used so much rouge that they had to build a rouge factory near to her house to keep her supplied. To supply the factory, they needed to have copious quantities of iron...

Wyoming his man’s good and dead news came in a missive that he read until the sap left him the paper cut bled for hours he held the letter to his mouth, bear- hugged tight air inside his chest and...

Thinking Loudly The first time they meet is in the National Portrait Gallery café, below ground, before Christmas, early in the evening. ‘And that’s for you,’ she says, giving him change. She speaks...

Air Passages I I want to write you new poems on the back of some abandoned ones; I folded the paper up in my rucksack and left town on a train God is closing down in this town of mine and pigeons...

A Jurisdictional Tiff Even paced exiting into the irregular, dark marks the last least surface, an incongruous resident's hacking cough short-circuits each breath. Such reassurance as there is,...

"Honestly, we are all children of God"   Day before Christmas Eve fell on Jehovah’s rest day, I visit Pawprint.  He is substantially medicated. Since my last visit he's invested in an exotic...

On the realisation of absolute insignificance Cool water sweeping between half open fingers Like a goldfish with chewed fins I swam. I could never grasp the cupped hand It took me twice as long as...

Nobody's Perfect   After elevenses, Mr Nobody was drying up. When Perfect kept leaping at his lead hanging from a coat-hook Nobody understood his frustration. At the park they met Mr Nowhere....