Criminate Gender pay gap – maternity leave, child care, leaves office on the dot Gender sleep gap – gestational hip pain, night feeds, unruly concerns Gender glee gap – don’t wake baby, it’s a school night, mental load Gender dream gap – not this promotion, don’t be selfish, after they’ve left Gender love gap – […]
Warning – 100 words
Warning There in the mud, the first snowdrop of the season. And, yes, glove in teeth, I make the dog sit so I can photograph it. Look at this. #springiscoming. Only it isn’t true. I have learned that this little dancer with her blue-green skirt is only here to fool me, for sport. Come on, […]
Blanket – 100 words
Blanket Under the cover of this fog, we have been transported – the house, the dogs and I – to a place of misfortune. Grey malevolence has poured in and removed the other people and their colourful optimism. We are marooned. There are no shops or schools or jolly pubs. Where the road used to […]
Missed – 100 words
Missed Moving boxes: finding cards. 20, no, 30 birthdays gone. Elastic bands stiff and failing. Some from family, the constant bones of a life – others just names, colleagues, playmates who blew through like gusts. I add up the ones you sent: Love, from D. With love, from D. Love, D. D x. Wish you […]
Let me tell you this – 100 words
Let me tell you this There were times when I knew what to say, which shirt to wear, how to be. Just knew. Answers bloomed like daffs in spring. People saw a woman proficient, in charge – and I was, back then. But I had forgotten that all of these things are like tide – […]
Fell moods – 100 words
Fell moods They tell me how to feel with sullen grey desolation, rain washed and bleak. Dappled optimism negotiating with showers. Intermittent hope. And, oh my goodness, life’s worth living in outrageous splashes of purple and orange. That light reaches out and squeezes my heart. Sense everything; this moment will not come again. Fickle […]
Find inspiration, she said – 100 words
Find inspiration, she said Hello! I don’t know what you look like. I’m over here. I can’t see you. Give me a sign. There. Did you get it? No, only a leaf tumbling, and some scampering. That was me. Show yourself. Are you a squirrel? No. Or only sometimes, then I’m a bird, or a […]
Day One – 100 words
Day One You have arrived, inevitable as hunger. A stranger with a suitcase of mysteries, neatly folded. But we aren’t friends. Yet… Does it matter if my welcome is cool? Or my star-lit arms opened with fanfare? Will you execute a plan, detailed and deliberate, or will cruel whimsy buffet me? Must I barter with […]