Key to staying alive in a snake pit is stillness. People who do it for religion or sport have learned to pare the repertoire of the animated entity down to its basics. They can only allow themselves the motion of breathing. Of seeing: in the snake pit, looking is a luxury. Now and again someone falls into the snake pit… Read it
A female driver held open the door of a Mercedes as Dame Alicia Greystone, dressed in a black silk trouser suit, moved down the steps and flowed onto the back seat like a moonlit ocean wave. From her handbag Dame Alicia pulled out the handwritten notes she had scrawled last night. She had not wanted to be the keynote speaker… Read it
Mind the gap between her shoulders where the skin flares. The colour of fallen ships. Her folded feathers in the underworld. One day she’d like to throw herself against a wall where they could see her. Where they could gawp. She is not what they would wish to worship. Giggling in the crowded tunnels. Earthbound she is crow-faced. She is… Read it
