Pocket Boy’s First Day
Henry was the smallest in his family but he seemed to have the biggest coat. It used to belong to his older brother, Pete. Pete laughed at Henry in the coat. ‘You look silly,’ he said. Henry didn’t...
View ArticleQ&A
Somewhere, somehow, my body decided it could only sleep on trains. It can sit for days, staring at the old family portrait above the mantle where there used to be porcelain statues and an old wooden...
View ArticlePocket Boy’s New Coat
Henry was in a loud mood. He was playing a game he liked to call ‘BANG BANG BOO’. This mostly meant trying to scare his brother, Pete, who was trying to feed his pet mice. Pete was not in a loud mood....
View ArticleMacy’s Laces
This is Macy Mayhew. Macy Mayhew can zip up her cardigan. It looks like a crocodile’s smile. Macy Mayhew can button her coat. It looks like five red ladybirds resting on soft green moss. Macy Mayhew...
View ArticleAlone At Last
When you die you discover that actually, surprisingly, there was only ever you. You were your own mother, your own father, your own siblings and your own best friend. You were the person off the telly...
View ArticleThe Never-Seen Queen
On the sable throne of his eye she sat. Reflecting there upon his dream. Ruling all who stood in sight she sat, deflecting all who thought they’d seen a way to win a moment of his time, or lose a fear...
View ArticleOn the subject of legs and feet
If sofas had legs they’d carry us far As far as a bus, a train or car. But as they have just four small feet You’ll have to walk or take a seat.
View ArticleFlower
This flower is your smile, waving in the wind; one smile in a thousand smiles sprouting in the sun. This flower’s roots are in soil wet as laughter, dirty as thought; that’s why I picked you and why...
View ArticleTiny, the Giant: ARE YOU A GIANT?
Tiny, the Giant, stood in a field and shook his fists at a Strange New Thing. ‘ARE YOU A GIANT?’ he roared. But the Strange New Thing said nothing at all. It just stood and it shook in the breeze. No...
View ArticleHow to kiss
Go for a walk down a leafy lane, Hold out your hands and scatter sunbeams, Feel the breeze thread through your fingers, Take care to curl around corners and caress Every curve. Climb a tree in your...
View ArticleMovement
Last night we were ice floes sliding into the blue dawn. Your legs bobbing below mine and mine dipping and lapping in the wake of your grace. Would that the whole world moved this way wordless and in...
View ArticleA Glass, Poured
This glass poured itself as we watched through a thousand different lifetimes, each one a facet of the one before, each one refracting light through that slow poured liquid and splintering it as this...
View ArticleDear God, know me, from Adam
When God created Adam and then Eve, he thought they were fucking awesome. It’s true that Eve grew on him but even so: awesome. In the beginning it was just Adam. Adam was totally cool. God would hang...
View ArticleTiny, the Giant
A word about Tiny, the Giant… Sometime last year, my son told me he knew a giant. I was surprised, who wouldn’t be? And I wanted to know more. He told me that the giant was actually very tiny and lived...
View Articlebeginnings (2)
We’ll meet every year where winter meets spring Where midnight meets morning Where the tears meet a smile, And we’ll talk about new things Of what you would be and Where you would go and Who you would...
View ArticleFeather Boy
Start with a finger Held to the sky Feel the wind blow And let yourself fly Gather the clouds Inside of a fist Squeeze them all tight And turn them to mist Open your mouth And drink in the sun Swallow...
View Articlebeginnings
I see a bean and a beat and there you are, heavy as a glance light as grain. In silence I see the bean and the beat, an outline of night and you the dawn.
View ArticleHansel and Gretel
‘But where is our family?’ said Hansel. ‘How are we ever to find our way back to childhood without them? Have they all been eaten, just like the breadcrumbs? What a terrible thing, to escape that awful...
View Articleyou’re grey on white
you’re grey on white, a shadow fading. you’re a smudge waiting to be cleaned. you’re ice melting and memories queue waiting to flow from the undertow of who you were
View ArticleThe Never-Seen Queen
On the sable throne of his eye She sat. Reflecting there upon his dream. Ruling all who stood in sight She sat, deflecting all who thought they’d seen A way to win a moment of his time, Or lose a fear...
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