Cherrypicked stories
The Moon Maiden
This poem is based on a Japanese folktale about a childless couple – a bamboo cutter and his wife – who are given an infant by the Moon Maiden. It is...
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- 789 reads
14.1 Journey of Ascension
In the height of the short summer, potatoes did bring no bloom, berries and mushrooms were not ripe. It was cold and the stove kept them warm...
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- 64 reads
The Little Lady
I think I deserved a little whisky and water to help me through the interviews. We’d agency doing the cleaning, but I’d told my wife it would be...
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- 6 comments
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- 283 reads
We Never Speak of Rose
We do not speak of Rose, who was deposed from middle management, who went or was made to go, who knows? We will not mention Rose, who was with us for...
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- 77 reads
Too Many Tabs Open
I’ve got too many tabs open in my head. Even at night I don’t close them just in case they disappear forever. A classmate I admired, the name of a...
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- 12 comments
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- 375 reads
The Plan part two
At the airport he is met by precisely no one. He doesn’t exit the car till he’s at the foot of some stairs leading up to a large unmarked aero plan e...
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- 2 comments
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- 93 reads
13.1 Queen of Evidence
Ariadna learnt about the tragedy that took place in Yelabuga many years later. Samuel Gurevich, or Mulia as called in the family, wished to calm her...
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- 52 reads
Windfall.
We had a great interest in ghosts, prompted by a fear of being called a shitebag for turning down a dare when we were younger. In a less than spooky...
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- 18 comments
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- 1145 reads
The Plan part one
A basement room, five empty cans of Kronenbourg on an office table , two very basic chairs, as devoid of life as Hitler’s bunker. A man paces across...
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- 9 comments
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- 287 reads
Colourful Chorus!
… exciting explosion: explore!
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- 15 comments
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- 254 reads
Haibun for existential dread
An attempt at a haibun that went in a completely different direction from what I expected.
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- 7 comments
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- 228 reads
Missed You.
My junkie girlfriend sold her body to feed her habit. ‘I’m no doing any harm,’ she said. ‘I sold myself tae you. Look how that fucking worked oot?’ I...
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- 8 comments
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- 265 reads
"Unwanted Magic" 5
The Mom and Dad peddled the tandem bike over the bridge, pulling the wagon behind them with their son, Joey, and the magical dog inside it. Once they...
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- 10 comments
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- 228 reads
Hurricane force twelve
I spent many years at sea, 35 or so. One time we were caught in a force twelve hurricane in the bay of biscay. Our ship was 53.000 tons, but the seas...
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- 6 comments
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- 153 reads
Sparkly Little Paula
I wrote this for International Women's Day but as often, I'm too late for the IP. It's based on a true story of my school friend, Paula Dale.
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- 16 comments
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- 446 reads
More Elaines
Elaine and I barely spoke to each other but memories of this gruff, no-nonsense woman have stayed with me for fifty years.
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- 22 comments
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- 459 reads
Doctor, Doctor ('Dead Reckoning' series - Part 2)
In which Josah's spell as a patient is testing Archibald's patience!
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- 2 comments
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- 558 reads
More n'24 <freestyle>
Here we go in 2024… Tried to scribble one down got a little confused read’n around, read it out loud just to hear the sound… A bit a fear Got a man-...
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- 18 comments
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- 330 reads
Falling
Falling I am no one . White walls washed by sodium light was all I could see. There was a certain kind of claustrophobia that went with the room, a...
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- 16 comments
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- 369 reads