Cherrypicked stories
I made a grown woman cry tonight
I said her heart was all gristle and her lungs were rolled-up cereal packets and her spine was collapsible
- Read more about I made a grown woman cry tonight
- Log in to post comments
- 1816 reads
Prelude to a grope
This is a speed poem, For the record, if anyone can figure out what is going on in the poem, it did not happen to me. It did however happen to a close friend. It is sad that I felt the need to justify, but there you go.
- Read more about Prelude to a grope
- Log in to post comments
- 2033 reads
Avalanche
At first there were crumbs, toast at pace, then it chased me like an incoming tide until finally, the snow rolled like mist but thick as meringue.
- Read more about Avalanche
- Log in to post comments
- 1595 reads
I live in a case of cloth
I live in a case of cloth, every day swaddles me closer to my breasts, to my breathing. I leave the house with my butter bean eyes, casseroling the sky, mostly looking out for sin. People often ask me if the abacus under my eyes,
- Read more about I live in a case of cloth
- Log in to post comments
- 1956 reads
Chinese Whispers
I guess there was no way of knowing that things would turn out like this. As I stood and stared out across the moonlit, mountain vista, I reflected back on what had led up to this moment. When you're a mile high in the sky the air seems so much clearer and your thoughts become crystallised like a moth caught in an arctic freeze.
- Read more about Chinese Whispers
- 2 comments
- Log in to post comments
- 3553 reads
001 A little bit of history, repeating
She watches the removal van gurn and growl down the road containing a whole load of something and nothing.
- Read more about 001 A little bit of history, repeating
- 1 comment
- Log in to post comments
- 2472 reads
Opportunity
I keep mulling over what was said Passing it between my hands like a warm ball of dough. When I was younger I used to let the sea direct my movements. I would stand just beyond the reach of its sputum-covered fingers as they were
- Read more about Opportunity
- Log in to post comments
- 995 reads
Lead Singer's Haircut
While on a library dig, the team unearths, unexpectedly, ream after ream of things called 'poems'. Stumpy wedges of writing that serve no practice use. Excited as mice, the expedition dredges up more of the stuff. It must have a purpose. Probably primitive leisure. Let's juice it for clues. Send back the sherpers.
- Read more about Lead Singer's Haircut
- Log in to post comments
- 1275 reads
The Husband, The Wife and The Wardrobe
Dear John
- Read more about The Husband, The Wife and The Wardrobe
- Log in to post comments
- 3597 reads
The Short ReignReinRain of the King.
He had said, "Draughts...are for doorways and windows and necks and shivers. They come they go..."
- Read more about The Short ReignReinRain of the King.
- Log in to post comments
- 2407 reads
A Home Made Soup (words 5891)
There are these days¦Long days, when the sun is bright and the air a scented, brilliant blue; birds are singing and the ice cream men give their odd musical vans one final extra special clean with a sponge dunked in a bucket of hot soapy water because they know business is going to be good on days like these.
- Read more about A Home Made Soup (words 5891)
- Log in to post comments
- 1297 reads
Joy'
In the light of air fresh breath Fine no more tension tonight Your inside eye untouched by dust like a star one million miles away. There is a clear sky above the clouds.........
- Read more about Joy'
- Log in to post comments
- 1309 reads
Cloud (or) 7th Day
It was on the seventh day when people began talking about it, and the news reporters were inventing and interviewing cloud 'experts'...
- Read more about Cloud (or) 7th Day
- Log in to post comments
- 799 reads
14.28 Stapleton Hill, Bristol
Just before we left, reading Keats and after, the coal train drags freight, hypnotised¦"Can death be sleep¦"
- Read more about 14.28 Stapleton Hill, Bristol
- Log in to post comments
- 2645 reads
Just Left of Leaving
'What are we arguing about?' Sam turned off the radio for the third time and left his hand on the black plastic dial. He glanced over to the passenger seat, and his son's expression. The mouth was a straight red line, the chin poking out, breaking the fluid curve of his neck to his Adam's Apple. 'Look at the road,' Liam said.
- Read more about Just Left of Leaving
- Log in to post comments
- 700 reads
Jelly Park
It was the late night that did it, playing Portishead records with a bottle of Jack D and a packet of black Sobranies for company. By twelve o'clock I was singing, 'Nobody loves me¦' in a hoarse growl. By two I was attempting to play solo Twister to prove that friends are just not necessary in life. By three thirty I had stolen the pot plant from outside flat six and chucked it out of my top floor window. I've had enough of decorative frippery for one lifetime.
- Read more about Jelly Park
- Log in to post comments
- 1009 reads
Salvation
Souls swimming in the shallows are not always protected from the sea.
- Read more about Salvation
- Log in to post comments
- 1212 reads
Autumn Revisited (again)
The year is sinking softly down within me No Chateau Moulin Rouge. The russet leaves,
- Read more about Autumn Revisited (again)
- Log in to post comments
- 1971 reads
Climbing Cliffs
Lieutenant-Commander Wilkinson leans over the bridge and says "You fellows can smoke and talk quietly. But I expect all lights to be put out and absolute silence to be kept when I give the order. Funny how being told you can talk, often creates silence. For a while no-one speaks. It is a time for reflection, prayer and composing letters to loved ones. But my letters were all written yesterday or the day before. And I don't feel like praying any more. Anything that has to be said to God has been repeated a thousand times. There is nothing to do but watch the sea and the moon and wait. Some times I fancy I can see the faint outline of the land. The land where we will fight ' and perhaps die.
- Read more about Climbing Cliffs
- Log in to post comments
- 669 reads