Constantly clicking photos. I told the cancer charity counsellor. "What makes you want to do that?" she asked. "I don't want to forget anything." Even when he is so unwell. When he isn't himself. Except, he is still him. Even now he is beautiful. Rarely he'll half-open an eye, make a joke, spirit glows, and... Continue Reading →
In the white cotton sheeted bed. A hibernating beast haunting the middle of nights, stretching his eyes to unnatural places, mangling his face, contorting his sharp bones, and making the two of us whisper as he shakes, 'Relax daddy, you're OK daddy' just in case he recognises our voices as we stroke his arm and... Continue Reading →
You ever seen someone who can't sleep? Who tosses and turns and tosses. Their body like an emaciated eight year old. Gaze. See how they wriggle. One long thick vein following the twig-like arm to a huge hand. A hand made for cooking and holding. The blanket is thick with a lion on front. Stare.... Continue Reading →
Cancer. An extra family limb of unsurpassable weight that we drag around. Turns dreams to nightmares. Holidays to wanna-go-homes. Food to unfanciable. The future to unforgivable. Its mass grows and grows. Casts a shadow over everything. How can I see your smile and the fact that you got out of bed today when I miss... Continue Reading →
Nan, Before you got confused and covered your nose with red lipstick, you were glamorous. On a Saturday night when I was little and Blind Date was on, you would stand in front the mirror in the center of the living room and shroud yourself in a mist of potent perfume, then Blind Date would... Continue Reading →
She is old, frail, can't string a sentence together. She doesn't recognise me. I read her stories - she used to read them to me -, about a gypsy girl who keeps saying "I don't belong here". I feel guilty. She sleeps. I hope my voice is comfort to her, on some level, while she's... Continue Reading →
This week we shaved your hair. It dropped, we collected dreadlocks. You selected. Thick, thin, those divided into two or three at the bottom and chose between us who would bequeath. Some of us weaved it into ours. I cursed my hair for the millionth time for being so white, so white it wouldn't clutch... Continue Reading →
I love when he takes my hand. It saddens me too. Sat on the sofa, our legs spread like starfish watching Victoria. Not royalists, but we love period dramas. He may comment on the fish tank, the lunar, the clam, the shrimp, as though they're the school project he never had, or us lot who... Continue Reading →
In the witching hour when all is dark and still I come to believe my heart is a pin cushion. The pins are X-rays, doctors' words, nurses' faces full of pity, MacMillan leaflets, statistics, paracetamol, naproxen, morphine, fentanyl, "therapy" - radio radio radio chemo chemo chemo clinical trials. Spread. Spread. Spread. They should have should... Continue Reading →
