(published 9th April 2018)
The room is dark,
Like a very dark room.
Like that really bitter dark chocolate
Nobody eats
The projector shines a holy light at the wall
A long wooden floor separates me
From the screen.
I sit on a bench of wood
Alone.
We can only see
Trainered feet guiding a small kangaroo around the floor
Of someone’s oversized garden shed
A swan asleep
A shrub awake
The camera shows that they feel
The plight
Of this man reading aloud
Heartache poetry written by a woman
Probably his auntie or sister
Crying out for his fifth one and only this week
He is deep in melancholy
Monologue.
“Oh Lenore, god-like lover
Why did you run off with my mother?
This seat is broken, like my heart
You have utterly
Forsaken me”
I look across the long wooden floor
That separates me from the screen
I look around me and I am alone
I will always be alone
Nobody comes to this art gallery
During the week
So my heart gets the better of me
And I cartwheel across the floor
Several times.
WHEEEEEEEE, WHEEEEEEEEE
Jen Hughes is a writer from Ayrshire, Scotland. She has been furiously scribbling ideas and writing elaborate stories from as early as age seven. When it comes to blogging, she hopes to make up for her lack of experience with enthusiasm (which seems to be how she approaches most jobs, funnily enough). It’s a learning journey and, in the spirit of the blogger, she’ll be documenting as much as it as possible in her monthly entries. In her fiction and poetry, she has been published in a wide variety of online journals and magazines such as The Pulp Metal Magazine, Idle Ink, McStorytellers and Ogilvie Press; as well as having read out at various open mike and spoken word events in her area. Her up-to-date portfolio of short stories, flash fictions and poems can be found on her website www.dearoctopuswriting.wordpress.com. Jen is currently studying English Literature and Flm & TV Studies in Glasgow.