• Under the Radio
    She was talking to me under the radio, under the Saturday food programme guests cautioned against innuendo who went for humour in unlikely combos while eyes sank lower above the wheel. If anything can combine, list anything. In two hundred yards, bear left to turn right. The Plough is above in the day’s sky and […]
  • Palace Sunrise
    We’ll play it safe and get there for sunrise. Driving to Croydon, any day, is like being at Exeter Services on a Saturday in August, single file by West Cornwall Pasty. So when should we leave? When will we depart? Let’s play it safe, say 3 a.m. Get there for sunrise. Is there anything to […]
  • Whiteboard Scattergraph
    It was like that angst in the chest you mentioned, but then it exploded. My ‘self’ was in a hundred fragments.All I had was a bed and a skylight, a window on the incomprehensible.Drifting off, I muddled cliffs and gardens: Was it West Bay, Lyme Regis or Sidmouth?Football grounds merged: part Brunton Park, part Craven […]
  • The Ghost of Barry Bannan
    A slow moving weather system, burdened by a week of brooding, low-lying internet traffic will break or settle in the pre-match huddle. Straining my eyes; who is that team? They were so far gone from the first leg as to be forgotten in the present: out of place – a relic from last season; is […]
  • The Reducer
    With gravity at a low centre, you danced around temporary pairs with teams matched up player for player. Without seeing, but in your field of consciousness you could sense it coming: the reducer. Their manager said ‘send a message’ so seconds in you evaded the signature for a package gaining force and momentum and speed […]