a small stone

I pull a smooth black stone out of my pocket - a beach weekend is attached to it like a veil.

When I return

three people have sent emails telling me they have eaten my words and found them tasty. Thank you.

I lay awake too early

and listened to the rain on the tent, not wanting to go back to sleep.

Flying fish

Their squat black sillhouettes as they burst up out of the water and ploshed back in after a rainbow-shaped leap said 'here I am'.

Sunset, Wrabness

The sky starts a slow pink and burns brighter and brighter red-orange as the sun slips out of sight.

sunshiney evening

a bird sings at the top of its voice

Lazy morning

The cats prowl, looking for something that rustles

lemon cheesecake

sharp
cloggy
sweet

Alliums

Their big purple pom-pom heads balance on their long straight stems, bobbing in the breeze like buoys.

Emptying my pockets

Too many small stones will weigh me down

Dream-bird

He was white, swan-sized, with a long curling beak and wet black button eyes. He was mine. My job was to fill his stomach with internal organs. There was a zip across his belly - opened up his insides were gory and half-full. I put the different shapes in one by one - a length of intestine, a couple of kidney-shaped sacs. The last bit wouldn't fit. I thought I might have to cut him, make the hole bigger. He lay patiently on his back in my arms, squirming a little from the discomfort, his life in my hands.

very sleepy

but even the sun bouncing off the side mirror of the car in front is saying good morning

noon

overhead the clouds are rushing and bumping like London commuters

apple

it's sweet enough, but the texture reminds me of death

she tells me

she tells me the worst: she doesn't know who she is any more

tired eyes

the rain is a man with white hair and tired eyes thrumming his fingers on a varnished wooden desk

Ballerina

A small boy pirouettes in his garden. The hood on his red top is up, the drawstring pulled tight.

Roadkill

This morning as every morning my heart is crushed by their small soft bodies.

Jesus will save me

I offer him my seat on a busy tube - his hair is a little messed up and I wonder if there might be something wrong, but he accepts gratefully and sits as the train moves off. When the train slows again he takes out a large golden cross and brandishes it in a circle around his body, and as he passes me to get off he presses a card into my hand and smiles. It's like a playing card, but with Jesus on the front.

I didn't know

I didn't know that this dull-green spiky bush would let out such a profusion of pale yellow butterfly flowers.

Numbers

After lining up numbers into rows all morning I take a book of poetry into the garden.

Suddenly

Suddenly the garden is full of floating dandelion seeds, each lighter than a snowflake.

Japanese lilies

The long buds like snakes heads threaten to brown and wilt before they open. One of them manages to show off its pink, and floods the room with its gorgeous stink.

Blackbird

He sits on the roof and makes a perfect curve with the line from his tail-feathers to the crown of his head, framing a slice of sky like a cookie-cutter.

Becoming empty and allowing something in

I sit and wait. A small stone rises from somewhere murky and deep, as if the heart of it has become suddenly buoyant and is lifting it up towards the light.

6.45 am

Two crows push their heads into the grass like spears and gobble their breakfast. Behind them the mist is so thick the fields could be on fire.

buttercups

their shiny petals a shallow dish designed to bounce pure yellow back at the bees

summer day

after the windows are washed they disappear

Saying yes

She tells him if he keeps saying yes to everyone then he won't have any time for himself. 'I suppose so', he says.

Liar

The sun is promising warmth. When it gets people out into their gardens it turns its back on them.

Repeat as necessary

Look up: a pale flattened-grass path made by many feet, sweeping gracefully ahead
Look down: an irridescent-blue beetle making his way from one lush green place to another