Symbiosis

(found in a scientific article) Trespassing algae slip inside, make no attempt to hide their intimate intentions. The salamander eggs are secure from the Ambystoma egg lovers – they only want a cuddle and some warmth. It’s a win-win situation: the algae feast on waste of nitrogen and carbon seeping from the eggs, photosynthesising oxygen, a […]

Fallen into Bedlam

She woke to the sound of a quarrel, surrounded by whitewashed narrow walls. But they couldn’t whitewash sorrow with a smattering of hollow words. It was all a masquerade, this singing in Bedlam, a one-woman parade, to escape the man who had sprayed her life with his rotten sheen, turned her into something obscene to […]

The Second to Last Bird of Sunset

I look up at a vacant sky; except for one small cloud and the inkling of a crescent moon it’s empty – and then, there they are, swerving, climbing, swooping, flocking into the sunset. Sometimes, as the sun drops into the dark slot of night, the second to last bird’s wings briefly singe, forever cast […]

Three Limericks

There was a young astronaut from Earth Who dreamed of space travel from birth. He was so bored in space, He kept feeding his face And returned with a gigantic girth. There was once a young woman from Norwich Who refused to finish her porridge. Her Scottish boyfriend Who came from Hell’s Glen Said, ‘Eat […]