Play Children splash in puddles, see how far their snot stretches, shout louder than lions. It’s vital, educational, expressing themselves, letting off steam Until they learn that sitting still is better than finding equilibrium on a single chair leg, and silence is preferable to yodelling. ‘Thank you very much,’ and ‘please may I?’ get […]
Pressure – 100 words
Pressure Sometimes I dream of tears rushing like fat, slaking globs of rain after the drought. Rolled in dust – marking dry rivers at first as the wilting landscape looks on desperate and panting. Blobs tense from the need to burst with wetness. Flow, pour, flood me with quench, it urges, no deluge is […]
Priorities – 100 words
Marginalia – 100 words
Marginalia When I find something brilliant in a book that bursts with ideas and sparklingly beautiful versions of things I suddenly realise I knew all along but didn’t have the words for it hurts a bit. Tenderness prodded. I want to take these treasures and hug them, sift them, frame them, try them on and […]
Mental load – 100 words
Mental load dentist, haircuts worm tablets, damp on the ceiling just out of date stewing steak, and the squeaky garden gate a change in teenage behaviour, keep an eye on that school trip to be paid for and verrucas again quick trip to the supermarket between band practice and scouts don’t forget Susan’s birthday […]