He worked four nights a week potato picking because his mother was in debt. She laid at home, fumbling through objects clean and dirty, old and new. They reminded her of a time when recording memories wasn’t considered. She couldn’t tell the difference between things from before or after the Split that sent her son to the fields. Maybe she shouldn’t think about it....

When I emerged, I knew everything.

I just seemed to know how it all worked from that minute.

I knew the midwife’s wonder,

I knew that the soft pillows of my mother’s arms were home.

I knew I belonged to them, and to everything else in that room.

So I knew it all.

When I started school, I was taught everything.

They said I had the potential to know all there is to know.

I learnt how to write my na...

If wishes fell like rain, then certainly I am a storm.

Never ending.

I shower upon sunrise for the day to open and bloom with good things.

I shower in the evening, too.

I shower to wash the world in things better than itself.

I’m doing it a favour.

Every day, after the last drops of dew are sucked up by the sun,

I pour until exhausted.

But I keep pouring,

i don’t want it to stop,

it mustn’t stop,...

Can we all just be a bit quieter in here?

Sorry, but you need to tone it down.

I’m not being rude, I’m just saying-just asking if you can lower the volume.

I know you want to have fun, and I get it. I’m not one of those people. I’m not the police or anything, or a swat, or anything like that. But it’s very easy to chat quietly.

I’m just saying.

Please, it’s giving me a headache.

Why do you alway...

“I don’t know why, I just couldn’t help myself!” He hung his head at what was left of the sticky brown heap on the shop floor.

“Martin,” Florence’s face laboured a horrified grin, but her eyes sparkled with amusement. Martin buried his chin in the scarf he’d forgotten to take off on coming in, and suddenly her smile changed to that of a cynic who found the irony in everything.

“You’ve eaten all t...

Tightly closed window on left. All toys away in box below. Bed empty on right, facing mirror. Colourless door in middle. Rocking horse in front of door. Horse swaying in breeze. Clown puppet shadow on ceiling. Little girl’s reflection in mirror. Her dress red and white to match door....

MARTHA: I’m not being lewd, but I’ve got to tell you about Miss Gilberte’s cleavage. Unbelievable. I mean, you can see them knockers from afar-blimey, they’re not hard to spot! You can see them poking out right through her dress and they’re all wrinkly and look a bit like Mount Rushmore. It’s bad enough having to see them from that angle but when she gets closer...(gags). I don’t know, it just mak...

Dear Lover,

You seem to have stumbled upon my little garden here, or, as I had better hoped, you will have noticed the budding hollyhocks and roses from the lighthouse. Perhaps it is spring, in which case it’ll all be in full bloom by now. It’s been long since I looked on the garden but I know this one-not like the others-will continue it’s cycle of blossoming and wilting for as long as both you ...