Claire sat drawing with her wax crayons whilst her mother pushed pieces of meat and stale bread down into the top of the metal meat grinder with one hand and turned the handle with the other. Claire watched fascinated as the meat and bread came out worm like from the little holes of the disc through the round opening and dropped into the white bowl below. “Can I help you make the meatballs?” six year old Claire asked. “No...

Hey diddle Diddle the cat and the fiddle  How long had he been in the pub  knocking back pints of beer waiting for the numbness to set in so that his heart would stop aching? The tall, skinny American pushed back his blond hair “Do you want an acid?” mumbled a guy “Yeah lets have some.” He said hopelessly. How long had he been looking out at the beautiful bay where the tide was coming in hearing the plaintive cry of the c...

WHOOSHING 18/08/2011 Whooshing down the icy mountain flew the mighty crows towards the small town where people were going about their business happy that the holiday was going to begin. Arthur took out his fiddle and tuned it looking around at the children’s happy expectant, upturned faces. Primed to give them music full of vitality and colour, he looked up and saw the mighty crows darkening the sky. His heart was gripped...

 I gazed into the mirror As a child Pulling myself up to see Blond hair and brown eyes Mouth in a hesitant smile The only one I could tell how I felt Or remembered how life had been And promised how life could be. I looked into the mirror as a teenager I saw a moon face full of blemishes, discordant and sought to use it as a canvas To paint myself more acceptable eyes and mouth. No truth was available. I imagined a fantas...

MOTHER. She was the reason That I strove to start With life as a blank canvas She was the storm That whistled through my heart And shattered it. She was the longing for Life made easy A brighter, better world. She was the night When I was lost In a bad dream Where I was Naked and scared. She was the aloofness That left me On a trembling piece of ice On a river heading for the sea. She was the laughter So brittle so fake T...

Identity Crisis Sitting at a table with her mother and father at the side of an area designated as the dance floor Claire felt extremely self conscious. She had realized as soon as she arrived that she was wearing the wrong dress for the charity dance. She looked with dismay at the dresses the other girls were wearing, mainly mini shift dresses the latest fashion in 1965. Claire was wearing a dress that had a fitted bodic...

VINCENT VAN GOGH Starry Night He moved his arm Vigorously piling on Thick sweeps of yellow paint To show the movement And brilliance Of the glowing stars And crescent moon The colour of nature He stopped exhausted His heart pounding His eyes aching With the strain Of painting by star light. He gazed up at The clear night sky And saw the majesty And glory Of the expanse of the universe Not as pinpricks of light Far away ab...

Do not regard me by my age I am the sum of my experiences not my years I had to evolve beyond the trappings Through years of striving to be genuine To shake off the shackles of her pomposity I sought friends who would teach me to Open my mind to the new Let me not feel separate from others Hanging in space and time away from The experiences that should be mine Let me show that now I have evolved into a feeling, writing, c...

The Gift Melanie, a further education teacher crossed the road, from the college bracing herself against the rain and wind. She needed to return her sister's call in privacy. Shivering, she stepped into the phone box and dialled her Teresa's number. “You’d better go down to the hospital soon, they said mummy has only got a couple of days to live now!” Teresa told her.  “I’ll go to the hospital tomorrow. I’ve got a class t...

SOLITUDE Claire lay in an isolation tank in her local spa and started to panic. What made me decide to do this? she thought.  She hated being on her own even in her own home when her husband was at work and her children at school. It was a nightmare situation for her. She needed loud music to keep her company whilst she kept herself busy with a cooking or a painting project, in order to smother the fear of being abandoned...

“We’ve been here before,” said a voice Mary was sure she recognised. Mary struggled to call out to them. Her mouth, dried and cracked from two days of wandering in the desert with no water, only let out a whimper, too soft for others to hear. Catherine! she screamed in her head; but she only let out a sound like a sheep’s bleat. She had thought she had been abandoned in the harshness of the desert. Her body was not proper...