This girl glued toilet-roll tubes and cotton wool into polar bears on the kitchen table. Turned sick at inner-city alleys heaped with flytipped rubbish and smashed furniture. Nosed in plastic sacks, wiped spaghetti sauce from incriminating mail, reported her neighbours with savage glee. Danced ahead of a brightfaced litterpicking scally army, trailing binbags and lollipop rewards. Trudged for pay from boardroom to conference chamber, blah-blahing Corporate Benefits of Recycling and Sustainability. Swallow-dived, Aaaah! into an improbable happy-ever-after, conjured by the faerie duo of Early Retirement and Voluntary Redundancy. These autumn days, she walks wandering strandlines where Atlantic surf dumps seaglass, shredded nets, and incremental tons of plastic, treasure bag in right hand, litter bag in left.
And the tide is rising.
lives and writes partly in an elderly VW camper van, partly in a cottage in Brittany,
France. Her work has been published by Brilliant Flash Fiction, The Coachella
Review, Pure Slush, Peacock Journal, and others. Her published stories can be
found at:
https://patiencemackarness.wordpress.com
