Anniversary
 I have only three fingers left, but I stretch my hand into the bin where orphaned body parts lie, waiting to be repurposed, you might say, and pull out – a blue...

  Novice She is just sixteen, and clings to her pillar of faith, plump as a duck, or a goose stuffed with buttery prayers. Papa delivers fish, wine, fur-lined boots, to the convent turn and the...

    D H Lawrence Painted My Bathroom* I kid you not. He did it for ‘fun’. Swapped word for image and went to town on my blurry window panes: transcendental doodlings in primary colours,...

      Quercus It had always been there, standing against the sky as he left the village, between the field edge and the ditch, a constant presence in every coming and going. Now,...

      The Toy I had a toy fire-truck sent to me for Christmas, the usual shiny red with a ladder on top. I dressed a doll as a fireman with a helmet made out of paper, made him rescue...

      Taking the Piss ‘I hear you’re a tough guy’ Eddie said as we stood at the urinals; ‘That’s bullshit’ I said grinning ‘I’m the toughest’ Eddie finished and zipped- up and waited...

    Wolf Spider Hey, wolf spider on the bathtub bottom scaling porcelain, slipping — uncatchable. I want to shower. You dodge my washcloth, you dart away. You idiot. I’m trying to help....

  Lambent On the Fen, they wait for you lanterns held to guide you in to their quagmire caltrop trap. The sucking, stinking peat sea-salted silt where you could be preserved for future gawpers:...

    In Which We Separate   The mirror cymbal crash - rain mimicry; glass against floorboard. Door slam bassline thump and the rain; soft again on window sill… Isn’t this the bliss we...

      Dilection Was it love? I know not. You were a member of my laterigrade moves. Incognito we become ourselves like some of me: sans tags I trudged. It was a phase of intermezzos:...