My Lucky Cat My lucky cat waves at me through the day. Supposed to bring in wealth, it brings in none. You’d think that I would know the score by now. I’ve been through many so-called lucky charms. The Lincoln Imp brought me so much ill luck...

      Ritual To Ensure My Safe Return Home In the days before I leave I speak to the cat, explain that I must go away, specifying the number of days that she is to be left in charge. I tell her that she is being given a great responsibility to maintain...

      I Am Back I am back, my love, but much has changed: They have rearranged the waters and carved a holy sink of stone and brought their own memorials which are significant to them alone. But they did not fell the ash tree, being not barbarians after all,...

    Rathke’s Pouch As you read Place the tip of your tongue Against the roof of your mouth Explore the dome And there in the centre at the vertex Is a small pit This is Rathke’s Pouch We all have one But most have never known it Even though the tongue lies...

    Haunting Some houses are full of ghosts, some people can hear all of them but most never notice. No particular reason for it, it’s just different levels of ectoplasmic sensitivity, nothing to do with genetics or upbringing, one of those random...

      When Your Lawnmower Quotes Stalin you know there’s a problem. The easiest way to gain control of the population is to carry out acts of terror as you push your rotary blade Qualcast across an unruly lawn full of the spirit of Spring, this uprising...

      Patricia Marlowe after Nancy Jane by Charles Simic Step-father choking on his sandwich as she died. Hope, the optimist, flying away. Like spectators at a private drama we were, children peering into a fishbowl. In walked a nurse with a trolley. (How...

      The Snow There’s no need to talk about oneself. What’s real is real all over: a sediment of cold — pure cold — is salutary to the warmth, which thought it had the say. You little enzyme-hungry bits and pieces, life-shoots & insects, winding...

      You Are Now Entering Antarctica   When the glacier breaks, we’re sitting down to eat dinner. A large piece of ice beginning the slow move South puts me on edge, evolutionarily speaking. My skin, already white, feels like it’s shimmering like the...