‘SCALP HUNTERS, BABYSITTERS, ferrets, pavement artists walk at least once around the block before entering any building.’ Some agents use national security surveillance to track their lovers – past, present, would-be, fantasy – in the manner of a policeman ‘running a plate for a date’. They might just be practising; or testing new paradigms. Often […]
‘A BAD HAIR day is a day that only starts with uncontrollable hair. The truth is, the mirror gods will often relent by lunchtime.’ Who would have guessed the Cleopatra fringe would be so short-lived? Many suspect foul play: an actress, it’s thought, bought by a rival studio, may have slipped an asp into the […]
‘WHEN THE FIELD Marshal pulled down all the city’s minarets to confuse the occupying army, memory was promoted to the level of valour.’ Which came first, maze or sheepfold? Unarmed, listening intently, head full of shadowy myths, you step undaunted into destiny. Turning a corner you almost bump into a man who resembles your father, […]
‘THE TOWER OF the Graduate College was named the Ivory Tower, after the benefactor, whose company made Ivory Soap.’ Descartes teaches in this place of freedom, tranquillity and leisure. A storm might topple a young king and queen from even their most modest aspirations. Their crowns would fall off, and a fool might catch one […]
‘PASSENGER PLANES DO not carry parachutes at present, since passengers are likely to object to wearing so bulky an object on a long flight.’ A water-powered armillary sphere engineered in brass foretells for learners and demonstrates for teachers the real motions of the earth, the apparent motions of the heavens. Rain fills the bowl – […]
‘BETTER TO WEAR no gems at all than flawed stones. Better to make an enemy of the tiger than a friend of the rat.’ Amethyst is a sponge for angst, animosity, arrogance. This is just one of many crystals notable for their thirst. You desiccate around them, skin patient for the moisturising kiss the virtuous […]
‘THE WHOLE CREW is crowded into the crow’s nest, scanning for Half-way Island. The leak is relatively small, so probably you’ll get there.’ A cliff of portholes blocks your view at the end of a terraced street. Riveters migrate on other people’s handiwork, then find their berth and fill the air with the blues. Rivet […]
‘NEVER PACE THE floor of a sanctuary; never mix past and future in the same thought; never dwell without intention on the undecided.’ Bullfrogs are croaking near the hut. Alder and poplar leaves are fluttering, yet the lake is merely rippled, not ruffled. Those who seldom visit the forest always steal some little piece of […]
‘YOU’VE WEATHERED HOMESICKNESS, madness, pirates, scrimshaw, hellfire sermons. Time to drift placidly beside the pensioned leviathan.’ Incomparable mammals are losing themselves in the opacities of the blue-green llanos, the killing fields of contraptions not yet invented. A fascinated boy has nowhere to go, nowhere to start – unless he’s lucky enough to have a whaling […]
‘THE ANGEL IN disguise at your table may ineptly face-paint your wee ones, whose tears will mend holes in hand-me-downs.’ When the pharaoh in a jealous rage launched his genocide, the angel who descended from Adam and from heaven led an army against him, streaming like light from the sun in splendour. Though he’d dreamed […]
‘THE “WOODEN OX”, the “gliding horse” flourish as ancient roads disintegrate. The wheel takes all the load, the narrow felloe cleaving clayey soils.’ Oiling the hub are the three poisons: foolish pig, angry snake, uxorious dove. A potter shapes a dish, a monkey clutches at fruit, a swaddled corpse is left in the fetal posture […]
‘THERE ARE TWO extremes: the fresh print and the fossilised print; detection and preservation. Most of us escape both.’ Students stand in flour and then step aside onto paper. Meanwhile, the lecturer expounds one of the niceties of sleuthing: the marks of other non-living items (not just shoes). ‘Think of bicycle tracks, or even a […]
‘CATCH ME SOME radio words, elegant on the page. Lucent. Patina. Cerulean. Only a vibrissa from the indescribable essence.’ Your to-do list has two topics: the Chinese wheelbarrow, suggesting a form; and ‘Shenandoah’, shanty of lost love, a thousand miles, oddly, from the outlet mentioned. A ten-metre scroll of prosperous Suzhou shows not one wheel, […]
‘IF THE TROPHY hunter fails to close with an animal that satisfies his strict criteria, he may never fire a shot all season, except, in the final weeks, for meat.’ The raffle prize? The chance to name and shoot a lion. He’s licensed to take three and ship their heads back home. An English-speaking bearer […]
‘THE MOTHER NEEDS rest. From the nurses’ muster point you can see the stationery cupboard, door open. Baby lies asleep on a mattress of Jiffy bags.’ We seldom turn to look when hinges squeal. Discreetly accurate, they are mostly silent, even if lacking ball bearings. Complex things often outlive simple things – a panel of […]
