Caroline Mckenzie

My mother-in-law clears the empty plates. I offer to help, but she doesn’t look up. Her words flutter like napkins; no, thank you, she can manage. I wonder if she would have spoken at all if manners hadn’t insisted.   My father-in-law proposes a digestif. Unveils the amber bottles, lined up like polished trophies. He […]

Here I stood, paltry at first then leggy and reaching. Others came and went and still I stood. The earth was dust, and I was dry. I scoured my ringed reserves and absorbed the meagre goodness found there.   The moraine changed and the ground grew wetter. Those like me came and stayed although none