She woke beneath a kitchen table. There was dust on the lino and snow on the rooftops. But now the snow had stopped falling. She was wearing someone else's jumper. Heavy, handwoven, Hebridian sky blue with daisy motif. She stared at the yellow woollen stamen, white perfect petals, the blue. She pretended it the morning … Continue reading And When I Sleep, Luella. [vi]
She retreated an inch within and the piss porcelain and wet paper towels and the shit littered tiles and her size seven boot, printing damp jam to the door of the lavatory where she found herself, all seemed suddenly quite salubrious. But she wouldn't take a piss in there. Breathed out, rubbed her arms, rubbed … Continue reading And When I Sleep, Luella. [v]
It started to rain, so I dripped into The Eight Kings. The usual. Liquid-lunchers, afternoon boozers, the work-shy. The knock-off merchants, the old, the two-for-one crowd with the pushy pushchair. I could hear Snoyle laughing it up with the bookie boys behind me. They were playing at playing a game of cards. Far too often one … Continue reading The Definitive Slide.
He waited a while longer, but he saw no return. So, he went upstairs and laid in the bath and rolled another cigarette from an ashtray collection. The mirror steamed and rain drummed the thin glass in the skylight. When the water lost its heat, he climbed out, dried himself and dressed. In the old room … Continue reading The Shoes.
It is a gorse-yellow and golden dawn over Penn Beacon. Fresh rush and suck of the shingle beneath the shallow lap waves as they reach, keel and recoil. We roll the boat from the low trailer into the sea. Ffooks and Farrow, his cousin, on one side, Sean and I on the other. When we … Continue reading Five in the lapstrake.
bad lieutenant had the greasy palm, sought soft fruit solace in an odd shaped bar. supped black sambuca - contracted boozers' arm. couldn't find way out of carrier bag. caught a tap on the chin from the bristol crow. grew to dislike soubriquet bestowed. reversed tartan, tripled vodka intake flow. couldn't find way out … Continue reading soubriquet.
