Finally, Crazy Jeannie and Pleasant Terry got married again. Fair play to them. But, somewhere, somehow, along the way, in exchanging names twice, they confused each other’s nicknames, so that he, at last, found her, pleasant, and she, him, eventually, crazy. The actual details of how, or why, this confusion occurred are obscure. That’s … Continue reading An Unexpected Butterfly.
Perhaps I'm more intrigued with the ghost of John Simon Ritchie - useless musician, drug addict, spiteful bully, sneering poster boy - than I imagine? He returns to haunt me only ever once a year; I hear his rattling padlocked chain and the drag of those stolen engineer boots before I see him. Oh, but I … Continue reading Tea Stained.
Some years later. He pulls the peacoat collar up over his ears and, head down, takes heel to the bottom of the street. Folk still whisper as he passes, but less so these days. They grow old, they float away, they die. He lives with the memories of that night; the sky more white star … Continue reading The Lookout.
you dreamt this, she said. i had a trick involving string, a snide loop, a special knot. i had learned it from my dad - seen it once in 1970 something. every magician needs an assistant, be they beautiful or a drunken old shepherd with hoof coloured teeth and field hands. but he had a … Continue reading Bloodline
[window sill] this window sill is crowded with - four limes, an avocado, a tangerine, two apples, a ginger root man, a rubber egg (where did that come from?), much beachcombings, a spider plant, several books on ufos, a napoleonic toy soldier, a jar of english mustard, a bulb of garlic, a hard wood cube … Continue reading close to the aperture [window sill]
[oblong of light] the tyne ferry sketches across the river from the north side & sidles, beautifully, up to the south pier with such grace that I wonder if the river, tonight, is not brack, but brandy. the voyage is only some six minutes, but always a delight & well worth the £3.60 return fare. … Continue reading close to the aperture [oblong of light]
