Tag Archives: memories

Attentive Attentiveness

A memoir from my schooldays ….   Whilst I look at you, paying attention, you think, really I am elsewhere, paying attention, and I don’t think. I don’t think of the knowledge you think you are sharing with me, but I do think, and with thinking, I pay attention to the fact that my kneesContinue reading “Attentive Attentiveness”

Lilies of the Valley

I’ll find you both in the valley of lilies, wafting away the smell of mothballs from your clothes. My country grandmother, sunning yourself on the rim of your best Sunday hat, taking a well-earned rest from your garden of vegetables and honey. My city grandmother, swinging yourself from the handle of your trolley-bag, so illContinue reading “Lilies of the Valley”

Lonely Hand

‘Hands Folded Woman’ image from Pixabay.com (Creative Commons) Lovers’ hands still holding on, gripped, suckered, stuck like the suckers on windows of wooden toy-shop arrows bought, aimed, fired, landed, then pulled off, popped off; all leftover traces of once-was washed off without regard by a sloppy window cleaner. And a note shared through a door;Continue reading “Lonely Hand”

Pakefield Sea Front

      Waves.   Waves walking towards me as   I sit drinking tea at a pub by the sea   Thinking about fish running beneath the surface of the   Milky swirl of the tea as I swish my teaspoon around   Making whirlpools   Kites ripple and twirl around in the seaContinue reading “Pakefield Sea Front”

Death at Christmas

The tree is up and the lights are on The glow is bright and warm   But I feel cold     The tree is real, not a plastic job   The colour is green, but parts are yellow   and the ferns are falling     The glow may be bright   But theContinue reading “Death at Christmas”

Revisiting a Childhood Home

  The smell of sleeping mouths hanging wide open; damp fumes spreading.   A pair of shoes with black melted plastic soles sizzling next to the fire.   A panting beast – it’s dreams interrupted with the occasional snore – with bottom parked on singed shoes.   A pair of red ankles emerging from beneath theContinue reading “Revisiting a Childhood Home”

Sibling Territory

  Magazines neatly piled –   the edges all lined up with each other and parallel to the edges of the table.   A dust-free table and a strong smell of furniture polish, toothpaste and starch.   Shirts hanging in the wardrobe;   each hanger exactly two centimetres from its neighbour – not a creaseContinue reading “Sibling Territory”

Preserve

  glass impenetrable   where is the odour   coming from?     a toe nail flickers   the liquid yellows   and thickens     can I break the crystal box?   your toes cry out   untouched, unloved     your sweet smell   grows foul   with decay     Copyright ownedContinue reading “Preserve”