Carry On Up the Zombie Apocalypse

Between Coronavirus hysteria and Special Educational Needs parenting with depression, there seem infinite Grounds For Despair. But for my sense of humour, I might be found dangling from a roof-beam in the garage, swinging like a Smiths back-catalogue metronome in the breeze. I am blessed, however, with a character that seeks to overcome and to […]

Day 21

I am very different since my brain injury. On December 4th 2007, a funny thing happened to me on my way home from work, and I never got home as the person I had been again. I particularly struggle with hormones. It took me 30 years to see that it was puberty that triggered the […]

Poetry is not procrastination

It is, in fact, a well-spent use of time; The house needs to be cleaned, but then, in my Imagination, I’d rather play with Words than wipe the kitchen clean of grime. My son at school (at last, at last!) I drive Through plashing risk of aquaplane in grey Torrential rain, braking on the […]

An Alchemy of Self-Esteem

Achieving a balance in life is more easily said than done, and I have been somewhat hampered in my pursuit of this by several factors, including brain injury-aftermath and the failure, over the last year, by the education system, to provide my son with his legal right thereto. Thankfully, we were approached by a school […]

Red in Tooth and Claw – June 2019

The dogs killed a cat last night. While I was chatting with Allison, and Lilly and Daniel were playing before they left, Pollux rushed off the settee in the living room and shot into the garden. I thought no more of it, since they do this frequently, and I wasn’t unduly worried now that Leo […]

Tonia’s Gift

Recent events in romantic terms have hit a nerve within me; something deep down bleeds a bit, screaming. In my frantic search for a sticking plaster I act rashly, spending money to subscribe to a dating web site. Why? Do I need this? In a bid to escape the rawness my busy, bossy brain gets […]

A Vulnerable Chemistry

31st January 2018 This week I received a shocking piece of news. A lady that I knew in AA committed suicide last weekend. This shocked me to the core, not because I was particularly close to her but because, it turns out, our mental chemistry is the same. I saw her a couple of weeks […]

Autumn

This is the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” according to Keats’ rather optimistic poem. For me, it is different but, perhaps, also contains the seeds of growth. My son’s seventh birthday is imminent; I ought to say ‘close at hand’ but, for me, it has a poignancy that moans beneath the preparations with a […]

Breaking the Stigma

To begin with, I couldn’t talk about it.I was the woman, after all, who lost out in comparison to a cache of home-made porn and either a fear or an addiction to drama (or the possibility thereof). How could I tell people that I had been going out with someone who was hanging on to […]