What you Don’t Know
It is said by the terminally smug. in a dubious attempt to stop the rabble from eating brains instead of cake, that you don’t miss what you don’t know. A lack of concrete knowledge of how the crease of your neck so perfectly accommodates the wedge of my face, or how the blood sings in […]
The Last Hurrah
It catches her. Every so often, it sneaks up when she thinks she’s past it and resigned, floods over her with no warning, a pyroclastic flow of ash and rubble and the detritus of youth. It takes a half a Valium to stop the flow of tears. The drug leaves her listless but numb. She […]
Prisoners of Babel
In Babel’s tower glassless windows devour every wind-borne word. The ancient mortar holds each ragged stone in place. A brittle embrace. Only its great weight, its slumbering granite slabs, keep it standing up. What of our labours? Clutching mossy river stones to our thin, bruised chests. We shore up its walls in a futile effort […]
Demolition Day
We shake hands to show we come unarmed. We kiss to prove our bona fides, to smell each other’s fear, and know it for what it is. I spent so long convincing myself there were substitutes that would suffice. Metaphors built with such elegance they could take the place of the concrete. Letters for whispers, […]
Someday, Somehow
I keep hoping for amnesia. Waking in a state of sublime dyslexia. The ability to spell your name miraculously gone. I anticipate opportunities for grand betrayal. A house key left on the bedside table of a stranger. I want to forget how to find my way back to you. Purge the need to skin my […]
The Things We Leave Behind
Move on, says the bystander and so I do being essentially accommodating at heart. I know about starting anew having done it so many times there’s no beginning to the ending only a continuum of arrivals and departures. I escape with grace long before you have time to regret the whole incident or call in […]
Nevermore
A world and an age ago a better father who loved me sat beside my bed and read: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.” You said: this is just one time, not the only time or the last. But you’re wrong. My courage, it seems, has an expiration date, as does my […]
#FuckmeFriday – #Faun
#FuckMeFriday is an erotica writing prompt hosted and organized by @AislingWeaver. Please take the time to read the other pieces in this week’s collection. ___________ “Come here.” He is sprawled lazily in the armchair. His fly’s undone, splayed apart. His fingers, coiled like little cobras, stroke the thickening column of his cock. And I do. […]
Love’s Ephemera
During business hours, the collection of hearts in formaldehyde-filled jars is for the most part silent. Each sits in its allotted place on the dusty shelves. Occasionally they bob like dumb sponges in their hermetically sealed baths of forever and forgetfulness. They do their very best to act their part, keeping up appearances. Fleshy and […]
I will wander the streets of this fragile city
I will wander the streets of this fragile city and count my blessings, cripple by cripple, beggar by beggar. I will cross the canal’s black fetid waters and find a rare abundance in the flotsam that curls round the bridge piers like unruly kittens. I will smile at the roadside chess players high […]