Buzzing in the mind.

Frenzy in the fingers.

You whirl and ripple,

twist and turn.

Like a disposable bag flapping in the wind,

snagged by the stray spike of a lamp post.

You are snared by busyness,

hooked by occupation.

One day, the bag tears away from the pole,

hurt, but free.

Realising there was ground beneath it,

a sun above it,

life teeming in the trees.

Learn to be present, bag of busyne...

Traversing wintery planes everyday.

Trudging back from work everyday.

Slinging the coat onto the rack everyday.

The bitterness of daily monotony bites into my skin. My soul feels the sting of the never ending labour.

My daughter runs downstairs to greet me, throttling headfirst into my unmoving torso.

I am a man of few words. And although she cannot see it from her height, a smile breaks across...

My compatriots were in a spectacular uproar.

Those of class and status fumbling to undo their cages, those of power and reputation scrambling for aid.

But this outcome was a long time in the making.

Like a potter’s clay shaped into a vase, it was unrecognisable at first. The feeling of it was strange to describe, but eventually it become clear.

Change was coming. Evolution would rip apart the ...

The couple was really bloody unhelpful.

Sputtering and stammering all over the phone. Me and the lads could barely make out what they were terrified of, much less prepare for it.

So we took the lot. Grenade launchers, rocket launchers, one of the tanks, the whole artillery.

Believe me, if you’ve seen what I’ve seen, you’re taking the artillery. In this day an’ age of genetically mutated vegan f...

Me and Buddy stumble into the rocky ruins, hunting for whatever it was our client was in hysterics about.

Something of immense value yada yada. Just another job to me and Buddy, but apparently the absolute motherload for our employer.

Anyway.

We navigate into the halls of some sort of important and very dated looking temple, its worn down textures and splitting marble a telltale sign of it’s ap...

A cloth is finite.

Limited. It is bought, used, then discarded. Eventually the fibres will fray, the colour will drain, and the punching holes within its fabric render it’s purpose useless.

Our people were worn out. And their resilience had waned from a scream to a whisper.

War does that to you.

At least, it did to them.

I already know they are dead. I attended the funeral, listened to the pr...

Sorrow.

It’s what I would feel had I not felt it for my entire life.

The death of family.

The loss of purpose.

The rupturing torment of grief.

It’s numb to me now.

Crying.

Madness.

Suffering.

Terror.

Constant exposure to poison dulls the pain.

So when I eventually received news of the death of my parents in a tragic accident, I couldn’t summon anything within me.

Because in my eyes, in many...

My eyes fly open.

It’s pitch dark, which is already weird. I never wake up before my circadian alarm clock of 8am.

Nope. Don’t need the WC either. Why the hell am I awake?

I look over to my bedside - which I can’t see - and don’t sense anything strange or unusual.

Whatever. I drag my annoyance to the pillow and attempt in sink back into slumber.

No. I heard it for sure this time. Something is...

Do not disappoint me.

I pace back and forth, calling out to you with everything I have. My legs tire with fatigue, constantly traversing the wooden floor but still you do not appear.

I begin to feel doom, the impending ominous feeling strangling my organs, slamming into my stomach and causing my body to tremble.

Perhaps you will not come to my rescue.

Perhaps you will abandon me, as I once was....

I struggle in school, yet you laugh at my failure.

You demand I wake up, screaming that I arise to repeat the same endless loop of repetitive pain.

You mock me, ridicule me, belittle me.

You tell me I’m worthless.

You shove me around and poke a finger in my face.

But one day, I am driven by fear to I abandon what little pride I have.

I ask you for help.

I beg you for advice.

I come to you in t...