Lockdown Day 7: Sunday 29th March, 2020 I sit in the rear of the church, a fraying wicker seat at the end of my road to the aisles. The kirk is sparse, unadorned, a bare granite temple, typical Presbyterian gateway to the eternal dawn with a fire and brimstone gatekeeper. Some say Calvin was a […]
Lakeshore Drive hustled Lincoln Park
Lockdown Day 6; Saturday 28th March, 2020 Lakeshore Drive hustled Lincoln Park twenty floors below, late-evening traffic clogging the highway from the Old Fashioned grandeur of the Drake hotel to the malt liquor melee of the Addison turnoff. Lake Michigan sparkled in slow evening light, the twinkling rays of the retreating sun fading across that […]
liquid sunshine bound by the sky’s tears
Lockdown Day 5: Friday March 27th March, 2020 Uncle Lachlan Ruadh? Whisky – liquid sunshine bound by the sky’s tears. The water of life finished him off young before I was eight. He was always fun, the Big Bad Wolf of eager infant imagination. He never opened his mouth without a joke to crack or […]
Capstan full-strength fog
Lockdown Day 4: Thursday March 26th, 2020 Next? Grandpa – emphysema. I was seven by then. He was bedridden as long as I could remember, wreathed in a constant Capstan full-strength fog, assuring the doctor on his frequent visits that he’d really, really given up smoking this time despite the dead-give-away haze you could […]
she’s still dead
Lockdown Day 3: March 25th, 2020. I paused to marshal delinquent thoughts.“This is a pretty unusual way to pass the time, Terry. You sure this is what you want? It’s not very… uplifting.” He nodded, rigid shoulders framing syncopated breathing, “Humour me.” “Humour you? That’s easy. What do you call a Glaswegian in a […]
another day another dollar
Lockdown Day 2: Tuesday 24th March, 2020 Another day another dollar.Not too bad this lockdown lark. I could get used to this. Up for a coffee. Commute to the study. Logon. Do Brexit. Have a few brews. Kerching! Silver lining to this dire disease is that it has swept away the remnants of the remainiac […]
the fabric of life
Lockdown Day 2: Tuesday 24th March, 2020 Grandad died.” I stopped. And waited. Then waited some more. Terry chuckled, “Trick, your ignorance is encyclopaedic. Even on my death bed you won’t cut me some slack. Come on. Give up the good stuff. All the juicy bits. The secrets go to the grave with me. I […]
Tic. Toc.
Lockdown Day 1: Monday 23rd March, 2020 Darkness you can wrap around you. Darkness you can melt into. Darkness at the edge of town, in the centre, the suburbs, the parks and gardens, squares and alleyways, dormitory districts and arterial avenues. That’s what it’s feeling like tonight. First day of the future. First day […]
The Book of the Dead
Lockdown Day 1: Monday 23rd March, 2020. God means to kill us all “I’m collecting dead people, Trick.” Terry grinned eerily across the stark neon room as he said it. “Strange occupation for a scouser like, you might say, but it don’t mean that I’m robbing graves and selling the body parts. And don’t […]