Is that our future smacked out in front of the TV? Brawling in a pub car park? Driving dangerously in someone else’s car?

They can see you coming a mile off. Their radar beeps long before you hove into view.

Villanelle

Unbidden you fill my secret dreams recalling all those painful scenes.

I stared around me. I stared around me at the Barren Universe. I stared around me at the white sheet of Nothing. Surely to God I wasn't the only one here? Surely there had to be someone else here?

There’s a thing in the corner of my bedroom. Mummy says I’m not to worry about it. She says it’s not really there, and it’s my imaj… something. She keeps on using big words like that.

"Thank you, Annie," said Mrs Zanted, as Annie took a bow and sat back down. "Who's up next? Barabara, I believe it's you."

9TH MARCH, 1999, Dear Abi,