The Temple

This is an old one. I still quite like it, which is unusual for me looking back on past works. I guess I’d been reading a fair bit of Larkin at the time.

We left later than planned.
I walk through orange streets,
just behind companions
deep in talk.

Her dress coaxed me along.
As did her voice.
It’s a number of things
to be attracted to someone.
“Another?”
And so I had. We seemed
to be getting along.

We’re at someone else’s now.
The glass in my hand, full
with the red,
is forever being topped up.
Sloshed words slosh about.
I spent most of the time
looking through his records.

Beer should never
be introduced to medication.
I do it anyway. Drunk for
half the price. It does
nothing for my figure.

That night
I met my past lover.
I broke the ice
with a quip about the host.
We’ve since parted.
I still have her number,
written in eyeliner,
on a stained serviette.

Radio Silence

Just a quick explanation for the lengthy period of no-posts:

I slipped into a prolonged mixture of complacency, laziness, escapism and doubt in my abilities.

The last six months have been somewhat more productive – I’ve gotten to work on a novella thing, of which I’m going to post a small snippet from below, and I’ve resolved to get something down here at least once a fortnight. If I lurch off this new course please feel free to send me a kick for my arse in email form.

Here’s the said snippet anyhow. I’m well aware of the purple prose etc. – bear in mind this is still sub first draft. The working title is Sky though that’ll probably change towards completion.

The Ship

The craft broke through a whisper of sky. Multicoloured clouds screamed silently past the windows, violet branches of lightning off in the distance at first then striking inches away. Mountains and craters veered up miles below. Then, to something deep within the Ship’s surprise, vegetation of a sort became clear, shortly followed by rivers and tall, strangely curved stones. Indifferent eyes watched as the craft smashed into the alien canopy.

The Ship’s systems were slowly rebooting. Lights flickered on where still possible and a semblance of heat could be found from cabin to cabin. Basic maintenance drones were pottering around the spaces of the ship, fussing over the surfaces as if nothing were wrong. One was stuck looping in the female crew’s quarters, politely asking a tree that had broken through the hull to kindly lift it’s feet so that it may sweep underneath.

The Ship tried to contact home. All it received in response was the cold background radiation of space. It traced it’s location by watching the movement of the stars over the course of several weeks. It wasn’t near Sol. It didn’t recognise any of the constellations. How it had gotten here it didn’t know. All records were either wiped or otherwise corrupted. Eventually The Ship elected to transmit a distress signal, if only out of a sense of propriety. Shackled by the speed of light, it was unlikely to reach humanity before the statistical certainty of their extinction, some ten million years later.

Reptiles

Behind closed doors,

nibless pens

sunless mounds

with spitless lips,

watched with lidless eyes

windless dunes

starless nights

and Godless planes.

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly