Cherrypicked stories

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.

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

Dear John

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.........

Just before we left, reading Keats and after, the coal train drags freight, hypnotised¦"Can death be sleep¦"

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.

Souls swimming in the shallows are not always protected from the sea.

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.

When you stay with other people for a while you get new influences. Recipes you'd never known, music you'd never heard. Themes that will remind you of them always.