Author Archives: colinhopkirk

Weather forecast From now on and only at weekends the rain will fall upwards At all other times it will fall horizontally and resemble black hail

I imagine him laying there thinking using a voice from the Goon Show ‘Come on legs, get up now’ and his legs not listening and, being him a fiercely proud and independent man a grown man wearing a nappy this would soon get out of hand There would be shouting and he would beat hisContinue reading “Goon Show”

I hear the engines when the wind is in the south A slow whine builds to a scream holds itself steady for a long count longer than seems safe then throttles back in stages from scream to roar to whine to silent stop The day rights itself everything’s in place but for that kerosene smellContinue reading “Engine runs”

Nursing busted ribs Yeager buckles in The order sat uneasily exhales slowly checks his dials and switches Twin Brownings cut furrows stills his thoughts as best he can The people fell as corn

There’s a photograph in grainy black and white of North Korean Migs banking at great speed the air around them busy with a hundred small dots pencil marks and smudges an ink and charcoal drawing a rising arc of birds pursuing insects

Half a life awaya darkened roomgreen dials sweepflocking birds raise chatterrotations, amphetaminescold winds from the Urals

when I was a kid in Winterwe roamed frozen fieldsmade pipe bombs from fertiliser and sugarblew the shit out of dung heapspicked off rats with airgunsthis was a regular pastimewhen we were not otherwise engagedarguing the toss:Black and White or Colour?Dunaway or Deneuve?the relative meritsof Mig15 and Sabre

I. Wave after wave the island grows White light at the port becomes men A retinue awaits II. Inside a palace of marble and wood deep shadows pool A cool breeze from the sea The playing of fountains III. The Sultan smells of roses sits and does not speak He is here and somewhere elseContinue reading “The Sultan’s banker”

In the far distance hazy where the Trent is (although you cannot see it) great land-ships lay in tight formation anchored down the valley At night it’s all lights

He taught me how to play how to cradle marble between forefinger and thumb taught me arcane marble law (What are Taw and Mib?) the secrets of the quick Punjabi flick to always play for keeps and only see the nyab that you are aiming for Nyabs – Kenya school-speak for the game of marbles