The gymnast’s mother worked on Minoan Crete, and she loved it the way the gymnast once loved gymnastics. She even dressed like it.
14 May 1952
When you get home you put his watch and wedding ring in a shoe box.
The Outcast
Your name was Antoinette, and you didn’t belong.
Sunburn
The sun marked him as her own while he was still young and tender, a naive fisherman living in a wattle and daub shack by the sea.
Nightclub Toilet Me
If I could be anyone in the whole wide world, I would be nightclub toilet me.
On The Cards
I noticed the top joint of his left index finger was missing. ‘Fancy a game?’ he asked.
The Sacrifices We Make For You
When we were both ten, Anna told me the reason my wishes never came true was because my birthday cakes were made using margarine, not butter.
The Watermelon
When Bernice married, she was innocent in every way imaginable. Kirschbaum, it has to be said, was not.
Leaping, 1989
Emma Venables Tobias crouches, shouts down to the man next to me, asks him to give me a boost up. The man stirrups his hands. I shake my head, take a step back from the wall. Despite the fizzle in the air, the clink of glass bottles, the clank of hammers hacking at concrete, I … Continue reading Leaping, 1989
In Italy With Sean
Catherine Madden In Italy we were together every afternoon. I liked this even when he dominated me, said this is the way we look around a museum, we tend to have a nap at this time, and get on the bed and let me see you touching yourself. What else could I do? I couldn’t … Continue reading In Italy With Sean
