21 You’re not asleep, but if you keep your eyes shut nobody will talk to you, not that anyone will, they’re all grimly holding themselves together. The waiting room’s reek of unwashed bodies, vomit and booze-sour breath is so familiar it’s almost comforting. A nurse, her voice reminding you of a teacher who was kind […]
You Can’t Ever Get a Champagne Cork Back in the Bottle Read More »
The flapping-gowned headmistress swoops down on you as you come out of the library, books clutched against non-regulation gingham, the one mum said was okay, and half the price, and asks What are you wearing Jacqueline Robinson? and you can only whisper, sorry Miss Lyons, and she says to report to her in the morning
Competition Twenty-Five Highly Commended: Because Education Matters Read More »
Night air’s thick with fiddle’s scraped notes, old man’s tunes singing wild through the dark. Cow’s wide awake when she should be asleep, head crazy full of the old man’s tunes. Tom cat’s all a-twitch, his mouth yowling-wide, and sickle moon smiles, so high in the sky. Old woman shouts that the cow’s milk will
The Cat and the Fiddle Read More »
He stole away with her heart, wedding-day slinking from her bed before dawn, leaving a sorry note propped against the cherry blossom posy she was to carry down the aisle. She built a bonfire, threw everything that was his or theirs onto it, tossing the cherry blossom onto the pyre as a sacrificial
Competition Four Highly Commended: The Things We Count On Read More »
