I had the radio on all day and by the time I got to the afternoon bulletin I conceded, chucked the towel and quit. Gloomy, doomy booming on and on and on: inflation, strikes, women’s rights, politicians who lie, policemen who rape, flights don’t leave and guns kill people. Instead I walked in the woods […]
100 words – Summer in the north
Summer in the north. There’s a moment when the sun finally gets its hat out from behind the fat coats when we stand, dazzled and gaze at the bright. Oh, how lovely! And we peel off the layers to reveal naked skin, startled and smooth, like unshelling prawns. Toes and armpits and knees startlingly unclothed. […]
Contrary – 100 words
Contrary. Sunshine springtime, how glorious. This evening I’ll unspool the hose and twizzle its nozzle to drench rockery, fretful sproutlings, seeds, wildflower experiment, weary pot-dwellers. Hardly worth winding it back, this dry spell persists. Meanwhile: must kill the weeds. Mixing poison, pumping handle bites my palms and trigger finger spray, fatal drizzle for audacious opportunists. […]
Swallows – 100 words
Swallows. The pause year, when this was building site, they spat mud bricks under timber eaves and peacefully shat down unfinished walls. I moved in when they went to Africa – a cuckoo. In spring bird brains programmed to return. And return. Thwarted by slippery cladding: returned unnested, they found another perfect niche. A niche […]
Healing – 100 words
Healing. Sometimes when dramas and other people’s lost possession distract from tending the broken parts, things change. You, check, fleeting to find that new skin is fresh and pinkly smooth. Fine, that’s that, you say. And go about infatuations and reactions, habits clunking into place – a solid construction. Moving forward. But under the carapace […]