Prose

Fragrance and The Proust Effect

Scent is prime and primitive. A form of time travelling.I used to be a teenager, prime and proper, sweat-fearing,rule-abiding, God-loving. Without a will. Belonging tothem. The most radical discovery: the butler in DinnerFor One dabbing the whisky he’s serving onto his neck.Hot, warm, drunken, macho. Or the vanilla and tobacco-scented hair oil in the cabinet, […]

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Church

In Sunday school, the student asks the teacher how old he will be in heaven. The teacher tells him to pray for the answer. The student is nine years old and leaves class for the last time.There’s a sense of something liminal in certain coffeepots. They’re old and systemic in their design and can be

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Dire Straits

Dire straits Heat waves rise with the morning sun on its horizon, where the road meets the sky, and I walk and I walk and I stumble as I walk away from the nightmare of the scene. The sun now casting light on what the moon could not illuminate last night. The horror of a

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