Cherrypicked stories

went next door to talk to Winston he dealt some cards and brought out the brandy and told me about his greyhounds.

The night after I had been dreaming of tropical fish in eighties corporate fishtanks, I woke up with my skull as tight as a buoy. I spent the day bobbing between bed and toilet bowl, throwing up with tidal regularity.

A bag lady takes the last seat at a table. She asks for a light, profers cigarettes but no one there is a smoker.

Okay, I listened to all the comments, and came out with something a little different.

It was April in June; spring's very own month of non-stop decadence two months overdue. All of the trees, and all of the tangled roots and shoots below them, were erupting in a lusty chorus of wind-tickled new growth, the tick-tock of dandelion clocks and (if you listened carefully) the provocative ripening of stickybuds...

A villanelle

Death didn't look up to much today; in fact he looked positively wilted. His black suit needed pressing, the crisp white shirt in need of some starch and his tie was drooping at half-mast. 'Care for a snifter, matey?' I asked casually, knowing his temper was unreliable at best and earth shaking at it's its worst.

How could I be so cruel?

How translucent her skin looks in the moonlight, the faint cobweb of blue veins tattooing a map to her heart. I could strike now, but first I need to look into her eyes, those glittering blue orbs that have kept me spellbound for so many years. A pale gleam from the bedside light casts shadows around the room. How they leap from corner to bed and back again, ricocheting the knife's silvery threat. Her pupils are large, good girl; she has taken the tablets I left for her. Now all that remains is the ritual ceremony, and for that she needs the silken scarves removed from her dainty arms. Silently her eyes beseech me as I gently unwind the knotted silk, only the best for my beloved. I raise her enough to drink the wine and take my own cup, as the seconds tick away I am drowning once again in her hypnotic gaze¦¦¦¦