Wildfires

Wildfires   It’s the 21st Century in Britain, I huddle in my chair in an unheated room and dream of blue lights dancing across wood and coal, frills of yellow, red flames radiating heat around the room, dancing and singing, cha cha cha. I fill a hot water bottle make a big mug of soup […]

sinai ii

midnight frost is in our ears not sleeping under jupiters watch bedouin faces are stars lit by fire we walk in charcoal following moses I smell the singed dawn and am consumed

Apron

  Apron The teenager who did it may not have thought symbolic but nevertheless an apron it was. The one the mother wore when pegging out washing, chopping the heads off rhubarb and chickens and opening the door to a neighbour. The neighbour who’d heard shouting through the party wall and later that night smelt […]

Careful what you wish for

Careful what you  wish for It was cold in my easy chair. Too cold to be easy, in fact. Seeking warmth, I sank to my knees before the fireplace. Packed it with crumpled newspaper, kindling and well-seasoned logs. Didn’t want a failure, filling the room with smoke and then fizzling out. It burst satisfyingly into […]

Day 7

  Fire :   There’s something elemental and mysterious about fire. No wonder the gods didn’t want us to have it!   Maybe that’s why they invented central heating. Have a look at Jacob Polley’s poem ‘Smoke’: www.poetryarchive.org/poem/smoke Set the world on fire!     Martin Zarrop