he lights a cigarette and begins to list the illnesses that have struck people down in the area. Cancer. Coronary. Liver and kidney failure. And he says, "they're just the killers. Migraine. Anxiety. Impotence. Thrombosis. The high rates of carcinogenic illness in the area are being looked into. It all relates." One by one, down to … Continue reading Leaning into the gas ring
The Russian, recently bare, but now clad only in tiny vinyl shorts and flip-flops, was telling me all about how the dog days came to be called the dog days. Apparently it had to do with the stars, or the trade winds, or something. I tried to concentrate on the words, but he tended to … Continue reading Breadknife To An Iceberg.
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 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.
He hid the warm bike in the tall grass, among the trees, just shy of the flood-lit forecourt. He climbed a five-bar gate & walked the dark field until he felt he had a story straight. He smoked the last inch down to the roach. He pissed & spat into a Belfast sink he … Continue reading A Near-Dave Experience.
The young lounge the hours on the benches of the dead: their carefully careless hair skew-wiffs caps. Scratched and battered skateboards slung at their outstretched sneakers. Energy drinks clutched in one hand, handset in the other. Sickly, sticky-blue smiles on insect faces. You rarely see anyone riding a board these days. The older guys, sure. … Continue reading The Ancient Skate Punk.
