'Flash' writing anthology about chronic pain - submissions welcome!
After struggling with ear problems all my life and having two surgeries for Cholesteatoma in 2008 and 2015, a recent flare up has caused months of pain that is unexplained and has baffled my consultants. Having this on top of my original ear problems and cluster headaches sometimes the pain can make days difficult. This […]
An afternoon spent, or was it an evening, or three, in a wheel clamp’s tender clasp. My dues for modernist mutation paid out in full: ribs, calves, hands, sections of skull, wrenching, arching, hardening. A homecoming of sorts, a holding; mattress won’t grumble, neither will I – if only we knew if we’re hot or […]
Wedged between sky and river The birch, plaiting scarred spines, joins Ochre leaves to Cirrus clouds. In the wedge of bed and window Your wounded limbs endure A throbbing rhythm to misting dew Autumn wraps a sultry cage Of alizarin crimson. She entwines the rising bone To breach the slough of heaven Branches thunder and […]
Just a little twist, a sideways step to dodge out of the path of an eyes-forward businessman on a mission. My hip twists with the sideways step, then ankle and finally, knee. It’s a searing pain, stabs straight through the joint like a missile and there’s a battle taking place in there. My face is […]
There is too much light in the air today. My eyelids won’t retreat; they’re the heavy squad, repelling all invaders. My protection from a day too heavy for me, for my chest, my arms. my legs. I can only lie down beneath its weight. Breathing takes will. Push, push the invisible hand up, feel it […]
Twenty minutes; one thousand two hundred seconds, nothing really, unless you’re waiting, waiting to be told about something you may not want to hear. I feel different; my body is telling me there is a problem. Seventeen have passed. I’m sitting in a room where time has stood still. I’m surrounded by a sea of […]
(After Tennyson’s ‘The Dying Swan’) In this wasting plain a Wedge of swans Tangle in water So deep her eyes In the gyring ferment I am impotent Warming blankets only burn The stab I cannot touch her I cannot reach her To this berth I cannot go She writhes White feathers Drop around her bed […]
On Scarborough beach, I played football. This image is one of my new paintings. It is autobiographical and consists of two halves. One half reflects my early life growing up in Neepsend, an industrial area of Sheffield. The other half depicts me, as a child, on the beach with my football. by Paul […]
Eight months of pain, guilt. Losing my movement slowly, Affecting my work.Pain in my hip, back, Encroaching on everything. Physio: please help.Boss can’t understand, Pretended it wasn’t bad. I used to be fit. Practicing patience, Trying to be kind to self. But some days that’s hard. by Vanessa [This image shows my legs in […]
Lie in the car, stiff as a bell’s tongue, and just as mute. Pain in aspiration stage – still hoping I’ll hurl myself against walls, eager to chime. After a blurry episode give looking another go. Burgess Park is not itself right now: tiny, lifeless, the green of grass and foliage moulded in the same […]