Short Stories & Poetry
I have been commended, highly commended, shortlisted and longlisted for both genres in the past and the accolades continue, though I’m always the bridesmaid and never the bride as they say, always missing the top spot by a whisker of subjectivity. I have apparently a “brave and distinct voice” and one person told me that I was a “Marmite writer – love me or hate me”! This is maybe why I missed out on a shortlist spot for my Anglo-Indian collection in the SI Leeds Prize?!
You will find my winning published stories below by clicking on the icons. Others that have been placed are not published so have to keep them secret for the moment and try my hand at submitting elsewhere and entering more competitions.
Enjoy and please leave comments!
Under a Cerulean Sky
Under a Cerulean Sky Your waxy face floats. It’s a waning moon under a cerulean Californian sky. A headscarf the same hue, tied tight, envelops your hairless skull, stripped by cancer. Blues blend as if you are already in heaven. You want to be alive, bright but a...
Yekaterinaburg
I nestled in your petticoat folds snug amidst the silken underskirts where all your wealth was sewn. I lay beside a bird brooch, an emerald peacock whose inset diamond eyes lie lifeless against lacklustre sapphire cheeks. No plush velvet to cushion us but worn silk...
When She Breathes
The house heaves an audible sigh after their departure. Floorboards creak and groan under my weight as I close the front door, momentarily blinded by the evening sun catching the glass panes. They reflect a reassuring smile at my relief as I go to the front room, bare...
FIVE
Five narrow openings Farzhana had carefully left when pulling the blue threads apart to make the embroidered mesh on her burkha. They are part of a glistening white, criss-crossed pattern of tiny apertures, better to shield her from the outside world. Or so she had...
Cows and Lambs
Broken planks and withies lay scattered over the trampled grass. Nandi rubbed his eyes in disbelief then stared in dismay at the empty corral. Where had they gone? Cows weren’t in the habit of breaking out like that unless…a tiger? Had they been so terrified as to...
Ghost Ship
“How did you do this? Wonderful photo! It could be the Mary Rose framed in the archway outside. I can almost imagine her sailing by as I stand on the defence wall and look out over the harbour.” The enthusiastic exhibition visitor stood beside me, and I looked down on...
The Lesson in Dhansak
The Lesson in Dhansak Clip-clap, splosh and flop as my 1950’s Clarks shoes hit the cobbled street, trickling wet-grey with morning rain. We walk, all three. I swing in the middle, attached like an appendage to my Father and Uncle. I am that flesh-link between older...
Clickety-Click
The low clickety-click of the faulty carriage clock continues its muffled sound as it has done for generations. It was The Mother’s pride and joy. The brass mechanism’s carcass, an ugly beast of veined marble and gilt towering on the mantelpiece for as long as Marge...
Doodlebugs
There is my mother on a flagstone floor, curled around her smaller sibling like a foetus, a tortoise withdrawn under a kitchen table hoping the whine won’t stop, praying the bombs don’t fall as she clutches the shreds of her dispersed family. This is my mother in...
Lili
You lay in my heart, as you lie there still in deep earth, you sleep, our blood shared until a fiery death. Now you are gone. Apart from you in sorrow I hold close your soul. Your eyes mirror mine in a half vision, in a life less than whole without you. Cherry drains...