October 2015 – STUFF HAPPENS

West Country architecture ii

The Milking Parlour, Sharcott They built the parlour in ’35, with new machines for evacuating udders. Whatever would they think of next? Four farm workers stood there on that first morning, wincing at the hospital tiles, remarking on how the floor lent bounce to the lowing, the inside streams of yellow piss so unseemly. It […]

Notes on Dubai

Sunday AM A taxi driver called Maithripala (not his real name) gives me a lift into town from Dubai’s International Airport. M is in his thirties, smart, apparently upbeat, anxious to be helpful. He is a fine driver but it is not hard to imagine him doing equally well in less monotonous work environments. M tells me that […]

Suzerain

All March practising marksmanship, the plink of lead pellets against the upturned wheel barrow: plink. The target’s bruised centre, the barrow dimpled by spent pellets – shining catastrophes flat against its steel. Seen though cross hairs April is precision greens and browns, all the wind blow and flagging skies reduced to one intersection, a thin black centre. Plink. I […]