"Aw, Mum! That's not fair, why's he coming here? We haven't got room!" Jamie glowered at his mother. It was bad enough that he already had two big sisters, and a wee brother who could hardly walk, taking up his mum's time. Now Grandpa was coming to stay. And he was blind! Mum would never, ever have time to play with him anymore. And he had to learn to tell the time properly for school but nobody would help him to learn .
'Mention Portmeirion and the chances are that people of a certain age will think of the 1960s television programme The Prisoner. Others might picture the distinctive Mediterranean type pottery sold in most national garden centres.
Walking through the archway of Portmeirion today is surreal because, having left rural Wales only a few moments before, visitors now find themselves in a village that would sit comfortably on the Italian Riviera'.
'Zandor lived on the planet Re-ath, which was a bit like earth used to be many long circles of the sun ago. Zandor was going to be twelve soon and he was looking forward to celebrating his coming of in-between age with his birth family and friends. He'd already been to two of his friends' celebrations. Makon had invited everyone for a jet sky-ride on his special day and on Birko's day they watched their first in-between age moving hologram transmission'.
"Searching auld wive's barrels, Ochon the day! That clarty barm should stain my laurels! But what'll ye say? These movin things ca'd wives and weans, Wad move the very heart o' stanes."
Robert Burns is world famous as a farmer and poet of the people, yet a large part of his adventurous life was spent as a very respectable government exciseman, or a 'poor damn'd rascally gager', as Burns called himself. The above Extemporaneous Effusion was written on his appointment to his Excise commission in 1788 and gives an indication of Burns' mixed feelings about the post...
'Seldom do the ravages of war result in something so beautiful and touching that thousands of people continue to marvel at it today. Now hanging in the refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, the Lafaruk Madonna is a story of hope as well as a thing of beauty - but it had the most inauspicious beginning...'
'Forget sitting around for hours in airports and imagine instead the days of elegant rail travel, when passengers were personally escorted to spacious seats while the luggage was stowed safely on board by courteous porters. Then let the dream become a reality...'
'So tell me why you have come here today. I wonder if those will be my first words after all these years. I'm meeting her in the new restaurant in town. That was my choice; somewhere impersonal without memories of the past. As I shave, examining my face critically in the bathroom mirror for signs of age over the last fifteen years, I speculate as to how much she too will have changed...'
"C'mon, Midge, if you can't keep up then you can't be in our team," and Kenny Black gave Midge a mighty shove that knocked him face down on to the grass, before he ran off to join his team mates.
Midge got to his feet and watched the other boys as they ran about kicking and dribbling the ball. It was the same every time he went out with his friends; no matter what they played at, he was too small and always last at everything. He sighed and rubbed his face with his grubby hands, he was going home - he didn't even like football.
'The land is barren after the war, as though the Earth herself has given up the fight and the will to live and has left us without colour, or nurture, or hope. Some warned about the terrible consequences of nuclear armament. Others talked of a day of judgement when their God would exact some kind of Old Testament cleansing on the world...'
'Visitors travelling to Inverclyde down the M8 from Glasgow can now enjoy the impressive sight of Port Glasgow's own Newark Castle standing beside the River Clyde. It is not a new castle; it merely had lain largely hidden for many years, surrounded by the shipbuilding yards that were once Inverclyde's main economy...'
'We all know the scene. We think we're a size 12, 14, 16 or whatever, then by the time we've been in several different shops we have become a variety of sizes in one day. My husband watches with disbelief whenever he comes clothes shopping with me. "Just take the size that fits best," he will finally say. "But I'm not that size!" I wail...'
Twilight Dreamer (Published in Nomad) Think of me sometime in your other life, Where fidelity is the price you pay For mirror-image children, and a wife Whose transient beauty will fade some day; And where you too will age ungraciously, As human frailty exacts its toll, Propelling youthful hopes unerringly Toward oblivion's eternal goal. But if perchance one day you feel love's pull And echoes of a midnight world of dreams, Rest in contentment, lest you play the fool, For love is often not quite as it seems. Let twilight half-remembered thoughts remain But shadow pictures in a fertile brain.
| Coffee at the Cafe (Published in Writers' Forum) Watch the people going by, wonder where they go, or why? Crying weans wi’ tired maws; growling dogs wi’ mucky paws; jostling youths jist oot o’ bed; skinny teens who should be fed; grannies been doon fur their pension, guarding purses wi’ suspicion; business folk all dressed in black grab a bite – they must get back; well-dressed wumen eating scones, wi’ botoxed brows and wrinkled haunds; lonely lads withoot a mate eye cute wee lassies – hesitate; doon and oots search fur a fag; Big Issue vendors sell a gag. Humankind goes wandering by; it makes me want tae laugh and cry. |