“Even rust can be beautiful”. This is what the princess affirmed to herself every time she looked into her mirror. She had been made by her father, the King, when he had realised that he could not bear children. But he was a clumsy engineer at the best of times, and indifferent in his choice of … Continue reading
They secreted your trust in the darkest corner of the house, and there it lay undiscovered for a further three hundred years, until it was at last uncovered by the burrowing of voles. There it was, an aged parchment rolled up tight and tied with a length of dirty string. There was a guest at … Continue reading
A vixen’s scream, my mother. And my father, the stone, the moonlight pouring in, bramble and aconite. I crawl out, fully fledged, from that hole in your earth, and will not be put back down. I am your daughter now, the burden on your back, my elements yet unknown. Continue reading
1. Spring Sundays, and the dogwalkers come in pairs and threes, wrapped up against the mist pervading root, and branch, and thorn. Small dogs, that yap and snap at the cold air, trot behind them on the leash. A hiker, pausing in his long walk from Over There to Somewhere Else, unwraps his sandwiches. An … Continue reading
Creative Writing 2 This is the next Creative Writing course that I’ll be teaching for Medway Adult Education. It’s a 10-week course for writers with at least a little experience (getting through Creative Writing 1 is enough!). Monday evenings, 7-9pm, and it starts on 23rd May; so there is still time to enrol. The MACLS … Continue reading
V There is the embodiment of dreams in this work, red queen mating with white king and their offspring the dragon coiled like the land’s own chakra. Between the unredeemed pledge and the dreadful judgement, our generation is woven into such language as belongs to us, dreaming these erotic dreams of pantomimes and Mister Punch, … Continue reading
IV A prophet in the wilderness may see Mars rising, chariots gathering on the horizon. I saw great Moloch feeding on the children of my generation, and the people worshipping him, offering their own flesh to his appetites as they kowtowed on street corners, on beaches, in derelict palaces. For they knew the weight … Continue reading
