I recently came across Robert Graves’ poem ‘O Love in Me’ and was immediately impressed by its beautiful, stark imagery. This poem reminds us that love—that wonderful sun-drenched feeling of happiness and acceptance—is nourished by simple things, but is also stalked at the peripheries by darkness. The apple, perhaps an allusion to the Garden of Eden, […]
Love
The Hut
Emma pushed her leftovers around and kept her eyes on the plate; it was a mistake, she loved him, she told herself again as he gazed out of the window, chewing his food in that way that annoyed her—moving the food from side to side, holding it there before taking a gulp of beer—after he placed […]
Scenes from a School Run
Silent Sally is standing by herself again. My son knows her son. ‘Go on, play with Robbie,’ I say. My son shakes his head and tucks his chin into his coat. It is cold and he is feeling shy. I know the feeling. I think about walking up to Silent Sally, and in an instant […]
Cinderella of Suburbia
They got married—a little too hastily perhaps—after he reunited her with her glass slipper. They lived happily in their dream, three-bedroom home in Hounslow, which they affectionately called their ‘palace’, believing it would last forever. But no amount of drink or marijuana could stave his curse; as seasons changed, Prince Charming became less charming, and […]
The End of Love at Vik Beach
If you would have asked a me a year ago if I believed in love at first sight, happily ever afters, or whether I thought Emilia and I would stay together forever, I would have said absolutely, on all accounts; and if you’d asked me if I believed in trolls, curses, or water demons, well, […]
A Passage
After months alone, in silence, waiting for her return—longing for her touch or kiss again—Arianna came to him one night and led him by the hand into a dark room where it was vast and cold. Our lives are like rooms separated by corridors, she explained, we pass through many on our journey—a doorway from […]
Staring at the Sea
I am slipping on the Dunning-Kruger curve again, like a mountain of many peaks (each one revealing another) the further I travel, the more my journey continues; the more I learn the less I know. I contemplate my place here, writing this at this moment in time, and also here physically torn from my soul […]
What is Love Anyway
So there I was hauling my hungover arse around the city (notice I said ‘arse’ not ‘ass’. There’s a clue for you all — aspiring middle class Brit, somewhat stuck up his own, clinically repressed according to my therapist, and in the throes of constant disaffection. But hey, I wouldn’t know how to cope any […]
We Are All Made of Stars
When he asked her why here, why this spot, why always when a police officer moved them on they hooked up their trailers and drove around slowly — lest the canvas roofing would blow off — only to return several hours later; why this spot by the side of the Extraterrestrial Highway 1, she would always answer […]
Keeping the Absurd Alive: Camus and Suicide
Introduction In writing my novel I wanted to ask some questions regarding our perception of reality, the nature of existence, suicide, and our relationship with the absurd. I wanted to find out more about this, and this lead me to Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus. The title of this essay refers to the Greek myth […]
Sliced Oranges
We met at a wedding. We sat next to each other, both lost in a sea of colour and celebration. Me in an oversized Hugo Boss suit, and a gingham tie; she in a simple black suit with a white blouse. When the bride and groom came we both toasted them with a shared smile. The […]
Where Paths Lead
Path Station, on this August morning, will witness again all that defines human sorrow — the heart’s trajectory, when love’s inception falls to irredeemable passion, which then seeks freedom from itself through destruction. Soon Clara Brooks will seize her opportunity. But Michael Perez, has already gazed at this beautiful stranger, feeling he has always loved […]
The Food Lovers
Amber had been modestly picking at the bread basket between glasses of wine for an hour. She glanced at her phone again. It was getting embarrassing. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to occupy the table without actually ordering food. She called Leon again, it went straight to answer message. ‘Would madam care for […]
One More Time
‘Talk!’ McDonald shouts. ‘Come on you snake! Where were you on the night of the fifth?’ The lampshade, which was violently swung by Detective James McDonald a few moments earlier, finally settles above the table where Eddie Magellan cries with his head in his hands. ‘Busy,’ Eddie wipes his tears. ‘I was busy, I already […]