Red Card

The building site on the edge of Nottingham was mourning a great national tragedy. We were hungover as a result. My young arms ached from the weight of the plasterboard precariously balanced above my head. My Father, who held the other end, exhaled the sweet, stale odour of the night before into my nostrils, triggering my nausea. The screw I was attempting to fasten slipped to the floor followed by the plasterboard and then me as I attempted to stem the tide of pressure threatening to burst forth from my stomach.

Interruption

The pager beeped

It's scream rallying men of the town

Who dropped jobs, lovers,

babies (metaphorically I hope)

And the poems they were trying to write

High Temperatures and Suspicous Coughing

Is that? Ah no! A cough! I bury my head in the sand for a second. It’s nothing, it’s really not that bad

I’m fine. Just a splutter. Who will buy me vape-juice?

Jaws

The jaws of industry cranked and cracked and fractured the crust 

And churned  it’s nectar to soot and smog to satisfy our desire 

And war burnt carcasses while they still had breathe in their agonized virgin boyhood bodies

Lord of the Winged

He tucked his wings and descended to a stony bank at the foot of the cascade in the middle of the shallow late April flow. If humans walked past he retreated to a horse-chestnut branch on the opposite bank, staring from one eye. It was approaching sunset. A solitary human sat on the limestone, laptop open, staring back. 

Glass Table

   

There are crumbs on the glass table by the couch and more of them all over the floor.

It’s driving me mad as I try to type, I ought to be doing the chores. 

My mind is as messy as the clothes in my room that the sunshine is begging to dry

The shit on the bowl of the toilet upstairs is a nice little meal for a fly

Locked in

No more school. Great! Mervyn could never concentrate. He stopped caring the day it challenged him. Long division was pointless when you could just say ‘OK Google”. Instead, he stared out of the window and imagined battles in the stars. Now it was over as the whole world took pause.