Reading

 

He called himself a writer, but never seemed to write much. He claimed he was learning how to write less, that his long term goal was to write a one word novel. He bragged that he was making progress, that his latest novel was down to two lines.

Chapter 1

"Why don't you ever visit me?", she asked.

"Because I love you", he replied.

He said he was struggling to find an apt title, and a publisher who understood his minimalist style, who understood that two lines told enough of the story, yet allowed the reader the freedom to imagine the rest. 

"Why would anyone buy a book that tells them everything?", he asked, apparently quite sincerely.

It became a habit to take coffee with him each week, eager to hear how little he had written over the last seven days, if he had completed a one sentence novel. 

I found myself yearning for that one word novel, wondered what that word could be.

He reminded me that even a one word novel, no matter how perfect, would be a work of fiction, just another story, not an answer.

Parkstreet 

Ko-Fi

Not A Trout

I am not a trout, to be played until I'm weary, then cut loose, with a scarred lip to remember you by.

I am not a trout.

Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

Bewitched

 

Her legs,

Magic wands,

Casting spells

That turn me

Into

An idiot.

Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

This Christmas Morn

 

On this Christmas morn 

I await,

As an innocent

But convicted,

Condemned man awaits,

The sound of the drum 

Of the hangman. 

I await 

The strike of the clock,

The time to walk 

From my cell

To join my family

For lunch.

Parkstreet

Tap

 

When I think of her I could weep,

But I

Am an old

Broken

Garden

Tap,

With a correctly sized spanner

Attached

By a piece 

Of wire. 

Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

In The Morning

 

In the morning I was covered in tiny silver paw prints, as if a newly minted kitten had frolicked all over my dreams then fallen asleep beside me, breathing her warm shiny joy into my ear until her gentle tinkling woke me.

Parkstreet

Ko-Fi

The Politics Of Failure

Delivering a speech

In an empty town hall,

In an electorate

Of no one,

In a city of distraction,

In a nation of indifference.

The politics of failure,

Life.

Parkstreet