Rossetti’s Harp Player

The harp is made to play laments, and her fingers pluck its strings mournfully in mellifluous torment. Notes spill like dawn birdsong from the instrument she clings, as if it were the first song the harp had learnt to sing. Her velvet gown is black as night, the harp of ebony made, but light shimmers […]

Holes

I have torn holes in life, portals from one self to another, city to city, country to country. I have adapted my nostrils to different scents and smells, my tongue to sweet and sour. I have adjusted my eyes to everchanging landscapes, falling from another sky to land on concrete or grass, sometimes on my […]

Kindness in the Time of Corona

In these days of pandemic, I no longer rely on friends or the kindness of strangers. I take my daily walk alone, plodded laps around the football pitch, no cheers or claps, while spectral goalposts lean towards each other longing for the raucous fuss and bother of a game. I stop to admire silver petals, […]

Hello Mr Magpie!

“Why ask the willow for a branch when my husband can saw one off for you?” asked the shopkeeper. “That’s not how it works,” replied Willa. She paid for her shopping, grabbed her basket, and left. Soon two magpies appeared in Willa’s garden, carved from driftwood she collected from a local beach and painted by hand. […]