Monthly Archives: March 2020

Crime story (This is mostly a true story)

It’s raining In the library skiving schoolchildren gather around a screen hallowed halls of silence mutated into a community hub while the real books inhabit an empty maze of shelves their slender spines unexamined I ask the librarian for a … Continue reading

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Virological Resistance

Caught in a moment of space and time On a mucosal surface, a strand of Ribonucleic acid with Olfactory symptoms forms a New pandemic Attacks the very depths of human breath Vulnerable, yet virally Individuals interconnect by internet Reviving resilience, … Continue reading

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Black Swan

        Dark stranger, what prompted your sudden flight? Did dispute and rejection bring you here, Or some long tormented escape from fright? Did you choose us, or take a random steer? How long will you stay on … Continue reading

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Bootham Crescent, Home of York City Football Club

The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want. It’s a ritual, the prep, the layers of warmth worn with the red and blue battle weary scarf. Walking to the ground through dark graffiti-ed ginnels, blocks of terraced houses the ground gathers … Continue reading

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Never in doubt, or a bit late setting off for Pisa airport

The taxi driver screeched into the villa drive and slammed his brakes on. Gravel spat out from under his hot tyres. We waiting, looking at our watches, knew he was there, flung ourselves down the front steps, suitcases bump bumping … Continue reading

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East Coast

It’s summer. I go down to the beach where swimmers shiver in the grey waves and children open like anemones in sudden sunlight. Glimmering behind uncertain lines of cloud, time creeps in with the tide and beneath my feet crunch … Continue reading

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You Can’t Judge a Book…

It was one of those strange places where one road full of shabby houses with old bikes, mattresses and empty beer bottles in the gardens, not to mention the St. Georges flag hanging from the window of number 35, ran … Continue reading

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Sanctuary

At my age I should not be ashamed or embarrassed of what I like. There should be no secrets guilty or not. But mine for the sake of this poem is a love for the TV series ‘Nashville’. People might … Continue reading

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Memento Mori

A prose poem performed at the Leeds Lit Fest in March 2020. Inspired by a photograph of an abandoned house, the piece is about ageing. How, when we are old our memories become our sanctuary. Walk with me through this … Continue reading

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En-suite

This piece was written for a reading at the Headingley Literature Festival presented by the HEART reading group in March 2020. The theme of the readings was sanctuary. Lenny felt safe at last. He’d been shown to a decent cell … Continue reading

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