I can speak to crowds of tens, hundreds, thousands.

I can speak to great uncle Harry, and he’s practically deaf.

But I go home, and I’m not heard at all.

It makes me wonder.

Are my words quiet, even when my volume is not?

Am I worth listening to?

Or do you just nit bother?...

When she was a little girl, she called herself the flower queen.

Daisy chains for crowns, flowers painted on her face at every opportunity, buttercups under her chin, roses in jugs, flower plasters for when they pricked her skin.

She loves nothing more than flowers, butterflies and playing in the sun.

And she got older.

She was still just as pretty, still radiated sunshine.

It wasn’t thorns t...

It had been a long time coming.

Throughout the night, I heard a thousand howling wolves, but the numbers slowly declined.

As the sun peeped over the hill, I heard just one wolf howl. It sounded broken, exhausted, terrified, but then there was just silence.

I knew it was over....

When you pull on your oldest pair of boots, and they fit around your every imperfection perfectly.

When you sit in your favourite chair, old, slightly worn, scratched by the cat, but perfect, and it molds around you.

When your mother cooks your favourite dish, misses out the mushrooms because she’s finally remembered you don’t like them.

When someone takes the last of nan’s chocolates and every...

Everyone gathered to watch the fight. On tv’s in pubs across the country, on mates sofas, in schools.

It was supposed to be the biggest, most exciting fight of all time.

They squared up. The fight started. A few unimportant blows passed, but barely twenty seconds in, KO.

Successful, built like the hulk, scowling, he made his way home.

Unlocked the door.

“Here kitty kitty.”...

She lies there. Sick. Breathing shaky, weak. Heart slow, weak. Eyes half closed, weak. He holds her hand. She can’t speak. He can.

“Do you remember Narcissus? Who couldn’t let go of his love? Who would never forget? Who stayed and sat and waited forever, till he became the flowers?”

She doesn’t respond, but she remembers. And she watches as he puts the forget me not in her curled fingers....

Roses have thorns to fight of course. They’re vicious creatures sometimes, the pretty ones.

Roses have thorns to tease, of course. To tantalise, you can’t touch me!

Roses have thorns to defend, of course. For sometimes flowers are stolen, hurt....

Why are the lights on damnit! And the curtains, why aren’t they shut?

Ow. How does walking hurt? How does that little tiny movement make my head feel like that?

Damnit.

I can’t do this. Hangover cure. Phone. Too bright, too bright, ow.

Google. “Hang over cure”. No. That’s all products to buy.

“How to make a hangover cure at home”. That’s better.

- - -

No. It stinks. And it looks gross. I ...

I remember as a kid,

I never heeded warnings.

I’d hide in my treehouse,

Throwing stones at bears,

I’d go swimming in the river,

Alone, all by myself.

I’d climb the highest tree,

Just to watch everyone else,

I’d sit on the hearth,

Watching the flames,

Imagining, poking, playing.

I sit all alone now, wishing I was still that person....

Family dinner, Friday night. Everyone’s busy, it’s an agreement, come in work clothes if you must.

Sat around the table is the father and mother, wealthy, dressed smartly. There is the eldest son, in his work clothes, dressed as an accountant. The eldest daughter is dressed as a lawyer. The youngest daughter is as a banker and so is the other daughter.

Today however, there is an unusual member.

...