Quintet

The End of Silence

To end the silence takes courage; to say the things that go against the ‘norm’; to challenge the way things have become; to step out of the shadows of one’s own insecurities and say THIS IS WHO I AM. Sixteen years ago the universe saw that I was on the backfoot from a series of […]

sick and tired of being sick and tired

This statement is something of a cliche in AA meetings; it is often described as the state which precedes the push to get clean and sober. Twenty five years clean and sober, however, I can tell you that this is the state that can happen under many different circumstances. I received an email on Friday […]

Shadow Child

the love of money

‘Beauty Queen’ – 2023. Watercolour pencil, paper, chicken wire.

The invisible children

Let’s talk about the Blind Side and the Invisible Children; about another way in which regimes slide into place out of seemingly good intentions. Imagine that there was a school for children with special educational needs, which you can be assured will teach your children. There are so many of these schools across the country […]

ad infinitum

The “love of my life” has left, and I see He was a misfit, just the same as me. My question, though, is this: why did I hold That mask on for so long? I’d like to point and blame and scream and shout, And kick my parents’ teeth out of their heads: How dare […]

A Portion of Perspective

They are in the car park of the local gym, and what starts as banter veers into a lecture, it seems. What started out as a light-hearted jibe about vegan custard descended into a polemic about meal-planning and a perceived disorganisation on my part. Some euphoric ramblings about hashish make it clear that we are […]

Social climbing in the subconscious