When I open my eyes Aleandro has left, his bed sheet folded. For a moment I’m in Santa Monica. The whirring fan, the garish pink walls seem vaguely familiar. Alcohol settles like a carpet of snow falling softly in my head. On the desk next to your Selected, there’s a note, saying “Thanks” with no … Continue reading
A Chinese Affair – Extract I dream of my mother again. She is sitting in front of the sewing machine, crying. I press on the wooden door and it opens quietly. My father tells me to come in. He is lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, where cobwebs dangle at the corners. He murmurs, … Continue reading
On the station the aging Nazi skinhead is just another baldy now, he’s finished his last minute Xmas shopping. Poking out from his festive T-shirt those swastika tattoos on his neck have paled to a gunmetal grey. Torn cotton shorts on a multicoloured rail station, it seems like all his arguments have been fought to … Continue reading
after Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Giant Snail’ (for PS Cottier) A peaceful life is arduous to attain; desire’s not enough, nor positive aim — one side’s withdrawal is always the other’s gain. What germ inside us inclines towards hate? It seems to me there must be something rank and spindly tangled in the hub of our hearts … Continue reading
Poem and Dish 