Poignant

  • Hoping

    To think of you now is to remember what we wanted to be. Where we wanted to be. How we were together. Before we left, before you went to the great city and I did not. Before life took us. And you were what you wanted to be and I was where I wanted to…

  • Ending and Beginning

    Breathe in, breathe out. Step into the cramped, crowded waiting room. Take a seat; take another breath.  Look at the clock, look at the receptionist, look at the screaming child throwing a tantrum two seats over. Try to stay calm. Get up quietly when the nurse calls you back; keep your eyes to the floor….

  • Green Room Yellow Room

    Lily sits uneasily in the Green Room rehearsing her question. What gets in the way is the room itself. She’s always felt anything might happen here. Her mum says it isn’t the room but her dad.  His lack of stability and the fact he’s not been around when they needed him. Her mum wants her…

  • An Old Man’s Teeth

    He let his new false teeth sink into each grape, red and plump with juice. “They will feel part of your mouth soon,” his dentist had said “just give it time.” But as his mouth flooded with sugary bits of grape, flesh and skin and blood, he only felt plastic.  He longed to spit the…

  • In the Caldera

    Friday March 10th 2013 I suppose this is a strange time to start writing a diary…. (I’ve just never seen the point before. Why do people feel the need to record the things that happen to them? If you need to remember something, you will.) But it’s so quiet here, so unearthly quiet…. If I…

  • Every Day

    “I still cook meals for them” she says.  “Every day. Like the gravy ad. I put the radio on, and make something different every day – pies, sausages, pasta, chicken, chips. I put it all out on plates, then scrape it away again. I don’t want anyone to know, in case they think I’m crazy….

  • Clinging On

    I knew from the first day – from the moment the removal men left – that I wanted to leave. I closed the door behind them, and took a deep breath. I turned to face the hallway. Mess. Muddle. Cardboard boxes and plastic tubs of junk stacked to my waist. Every step of the stairs…

  • Visiting Time

    To be honest I regretted saying I’d go and see him. It was already ten and I’d things to do. Parking was the usual nightmare and I’d had to leave the car three streets away. I only had enough change for an hour and the walk would eat into that. There didn’t seem much point….

  • The Twentieth

    Before I got a chance to lift the last corner of the ham sandwich along with the two crisps that clung to it, it was suddenly drowned in beer as some idiot bumped into the table. Not even a sorry. The bump took the top off three pints and drowned the plate. Normally, I never…

  • The Sentence

    I don’t mean to go on at you, you know. It’s just, I’m scared you’ll leave me if I’m not interesting and how can I be interesting if I’m not talking? When I look back, I can see other times it might have happened. “I wish this queue would go down.” “I wish it would…