L: Let’s walk on the pavement into the centre of town. We should be there in about seven minutes and thirty four seconds give or take.

R: The pavement? In some places they call it a sidewalk. In any case we should go through the park into town, along the little stony dirt track along the river.

L: How long will that take? Probably two or three times as long as just walking straight in along the ...

Boredom, the space where we really think

Before commiting our thoughts

To ink

The space taken by apps and phones

Turning us into thoughtless drones

Never bored, in the outdoors or in our homes

Existing only in our phones

Without the mental space for boredom

Sitting thoughtful by the sea

Awaiting serendipity

Without boredom, who is fre...

In crystal streams that barely flow,

Where sun-dappled shadows come and go,

A tiny fish with dreams so vast

Watched village life drift slowly past.

Each morning brought the same small sights:

The water-worn stones, the filtered lights,

Three lazy minnows drifting by,

The same patch of endless sky.

But deeper currents pulled his heart,

Whispers of a world apart,

Where mighty waters rushed and r...

Like a spiral staircase

Drawn by the hand of Escher

Life lived in the mind

Stale memories grow fresher

A relived past

We try to change forever

Mental simulations

Hindsight

The irony of spiralling rumination

While trying to get our minds right

Ending up as stagehands

While dreaming of the limelight

Half heartedly chasing it

And finally facing it

Nothing will come of us

And so it ever wa...

Swift, delicate and pearly white

With eyes as dark as night

Silky voiced

Fleet of foot

Silently wandering over

Creeking wood

Old houses

Steep stairwells

Covered in egg shells

Is today the day that she’s nice,

Or am I skating on thin ice...

My grandmother always told me

Grate the sweet potato

Never blend it

Befriend its texture through toil

Or the pudding will spoil

Sticky and blocky, not sweet and fluffy

Lovely and yummy and orange

And glazed

You must grate it, not blend it

For hours unfazed

Then mix it, bake it and leave it to cool

You must grate it, not blend it

You’ll end up a fool

So grate it, shake it, mix it an...

The Cathedral loomed like a giant’s tomb, its towering spire clawing at the storm-laden sky. Inside, Walter sat on the cold, splintering pew, his head bowed in mock piety. Around him, a sea of peasants huddled, their breath fogging the frigid air. From the pulpit, Father Anselm’s voice droned in harsh, alien Latin: “Dominus dixit: servite dominis vestris sicut me.” Serve your lords as you would ...

‘That’s Tony’s son, I know it!’. This, surprisingly wasn’t the first time it’d happened at some big family or diaspora event. One of grandad’s old friends or acquaintances recognised me.

My face, was simply my dad’s face, which he in turn had inherited from grandad. A little clone, prone to defensiveness and with a knack for making complexed things. Or pulling everything in the house apart to the...

Flora took a deep breath. Deep enough that she could feel her nostrils flair into the little stiff, inviting roundels Alex found so cute. They were currently rather pink, going on red rimmed in the depths of winter.

She’d just gotten to Leopold cafe on Avenue De Tervueren, or is it Tervuerenlaan? Flora sat in a plywood corner stuffed with oversized cushions. Trendy, cozy, Gezellig. Agréable she t...

Perfect, and getting better by the day.

That’s the only way I can describe my life. It goes through these periods of sustained calm, steadily growing toward the ‘good’.

It hadn’t started so easily. The early years were far from a suburban dream, they were grass filled but urban. We came up in the intermittent chaos of a very large city.

Tumultuous, exciting and always things going on. Cultures ...