(Janet Shearon - Neil Armstrong's first wife) 382,500 miles of nothing anybody has done before and you out there in black and white like Charlie Chaplin with a different hat those shimmering images the age of light-speed, my sweet, I'm here with our two boys, holding the rails while you tango with moonstones say hello … Continue reading Imagining Mrs Armstrong
I sit, warmly blanketed, in a bland room. The dim light on the wall opposite is an assault on my closed eyes. There’s no clock and no windows. The air conditioning hums loudly for intervals and then cuts off. My eyes water but I don’t raise a hand to brush the liquid away. Sometimes I … Continue reading PET Scan
It’s Friday evening and the masculine sky is built thick with steroidal clouds muscling out the tops of awed sky-scrapers. Contrasting snow like cherry blossoms chases the piquant wind while umbrellas like bent and splendid crepes admit colour in splashes as commuters battle through the park. Two girls, gripping insecure scarves attempt to exhume a … Continue reading Scene Sprung from a List of Words
This is the last post in this series. For post one click here and for post two click here (ix) imagine planning to poison (innocently) your neighbour's noisy dog a BBQ, their stiff blue chlorine pool, a juicy piece of your chop “poor sweet thing look at those eyes” etcetera etcetera this was worse (x) … Continue reading Snowite (parts ix – xiv)
For parts i - iii click here (iv) This mirror, a gift from him, the carved frame finger-softened “It's in the classic style” he says. Spotless glass blank-faced, I can see her cherubs smirking in the cornices. “Look! A beautiful portrait!” Words bounce in and out from mouth to mouth as he sets his reflection … Continue reading Snowite (Parts iv – viii)
From the point-of-view of the Step-Mother (i) It begins in a red-lit pub glazed with cigarette-smoke. He sits alone, eyes hung brown thick with the gravy of old love. The froth on his beer is drying a watery ring hugs the bottom of his glass. He does not tell me of his daughter her beauty … Continue reading Snowite (Parts i-iii)
You wake at night to sparks like blue and yellow bullets whizzing by the glass and a familiar electronic hum. On investigation you find him busy in the black mask and you cover your face until a pause gives him space to see you, the question in your eyes "I'm welding moon beams to make … Continue reading Ramp Among the Stars
It's Wednesday night and in homes across the catchment children are asked to "keep it down" while one parent finds a hidey hole which pretends to be an office for another COVID19 P&C meeting on time, on track and on budget on Skype The topic is the school fete beset by 1.5 metre problems and … Continue reading P&C Revolution
Fenny Fawcett ran a factory printing fiction and fantasy but while enjoying fanciful fiction, she also liked her facts, you see. ** Fiction claimed as fact, she could only view as fallacy and she fought this fact confection with significant potency. ** Fenny started fracking for fiction in our history and finally formed a faction … Continue reading Fenny’s Fact Story
Ladies & Gentleman, Tonight I am here to speak with you about Lazy Luck. Some people simply snorter along through life: getting this job, winning that prize, getting a book published… they have no glue about how lucky they are. It’s lazy, that’s true, but in a strange way it’s not their fault. In fact, … Continue reading Malapop!
