Lament for all the unread words. We bob on an ocean of instructions, appendices and contra-indications. As sterile as saline. Sentences curl around diagrams, lodged in folders, binders and on-line repositories, furiously punctuated for no one to see. Semi colons like silent trees falling in the forest. Think, won’t you, of the hours of writing, […]
Man and a dog – 121 words
Aftermath – 105 words
Aftermath. They went back into their box, the shiny balls and sparkly strings, the lights, the red and green, and all the things no one believes in. Someone asked ‘Who made this one?’ A daubed reindeer, it’s glitter balding. It was a hopeful child, certain that He would bring the gifts and make the magic. […]
Kisses – 104 words
Kisses are strange. I don’t mean the open-mouth eat-you-up heart-pounding type. No, that’s normal for a human animal going about its reproduction, but all the others, the mwa mwa cat’s arse puckered lip variety that are weird. I didn’t kiss my brand-new babies, I nuzzled and sniffed them, filling my soul with the smell and […]
102 words – Baby Jesus
Every year – earlier every year – I take the baby Jesus from his Tesco bag and put him with his mortal parents in his wooden painted barn, a couple of grinning angels on the roof. The family is framed by improbably attractive livestock, kings and shepherds. It’s part of the tradition, along with the […]