Cherrypicked stories

the boiler started booming like hip hop

I had dreamt of purple and you had laughed at me. Deep baritones of laughter that painted around us with heavy strokes and we were encased. Thick purple paint. And as we lay there, naked and coloured, and your arms wrapped round me like dominoes, I blinked and squirmed from the weight and light of it all.

Edwin Probert: Six foot three, child in the head

From Straddle. Check us out at www.fuselit.co.uk .

Resubmission

We did not go To Thralton Toys and Models Even though my Dad Had said Because you see He tricked me And we went To Thralton Hospital Instead. And then my Dad he told me Before he tried to hold me

Chopping up strawberries to add to our branded Pimms jug, I realise why I distrust summer ' its arrogance ' the hyper-reality of sunlight, those overexposed July mornings; we chat with our palms pressed flat to the sky, crowns of light brambling through our finger-slats.

Never assume possession. No matter how many points it counts for.

Letting Go. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The heart is capable of many emotions, love, envy, fear, and hatred. They line up like soldiers in a row, waiting to be knocked down by fate, circumstance but rarely to be given up voluntarily. We are, after all, basically selfish unless we are saints and who can aspire to sainthood without the darkness of the soul interrupting us? So we mask our desires with worn-out sayings. "Its better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. Bullshit.