The tattoo on my chest doesn’t look like you. I should have used a photo instead of a memory. And not done it in the mirror.
Moments
Island
We swam to the island together. The wind got up, and the waves. The next morning his father rowed out. I never saw him again.
We really enjoyed our stay with you
We really enjoyed our stay with you. The accommodation was spacious and clean, and the meals plentiful and tasty. The bones in the stew and what might have been a tooth in the jam were disturbing at first but we soon got used to them. My husband enjoyed himself so much I believe he has decided to stay on a while longer. Could I therefore book the same week for next year? Me plus one.
Published on http://www.paragraphplanet.com 26 August 2015
Snap
His fingers snapped – nothing – and then his patience. He settled back in the armchair and struck the match. They would be sorry.
Fairy tale
You’re a wolf!
Yes, I am. And?
Well, I’m terrified!
Why?
You’re a wolf!
How many do you know?
You’re the first.
And your last.
Changing the guard at the sea
At the Marina bar an hour after sunrise, early sunseekers with their cappuccini and cornetti swirl and eddy around the nightclub exiters, cold water, give me cold water. The tribes mix like suntan cream and seawater.
An hour later the tattooed late-night swimmers trail up from the rocks, eyes red with salt and sleeplessness, beer bottles half full of cigarette butts and ash. The greatgrandparents distract the children with promises of coloured fish.
The princess lived in a tall tall tower
The princess lived in a tall tall tower a long way away. Through an inspired use of flame, smoke, mirrors and glass, based on a detailed knowledge of physics, chemistry, meteorology and bird biology, she managed to get a message to the prince. “No,” it said. “And don’t reply.”
Tell me a story
Daddy, tell me the story of the ninja horse.”
“I don’t know that one.”
“The princess, the sword and the unicorn.”
“Or that one.”
“Mummy knows them.”
“Clever Mummy. What about the one where Jack’s beans talk?”
“No.”
“The one where poor little Nick never gets chosen but one day the teddy bears pick Nick?”
“OK. But only if they live happily ever after. And together.”
“OK.”
“I like together.”
Noir
Young, I watched the black and white where the black and blue were shadows on night-white faces. Now, my hat is always tilted.
Spectacle
In a southern Spanish bar, Colin’s view is rosé tinted. And now, when Juan arrives, he dances, spins and stamps as people stare.
