An anthology of creative writing from students at the University of Glasgow, in 5 parts under the theme of Journeys:
Nameless, a short story by Swara Shukla
Chessman, Warrior, King, a poem by Mairi Murphy
My Favourite Place, a short story by Aike Jansen
Abduction on Memoria Lane, a short story by Gerry Erang
The Glasgow and South of Spain Olive Oil Company Ltd., a poem by Tom McDonald
Whether you go to the rich mines
Dug beneath the rich bodegas
Of Rio Tinto
Or Seville, Cadiz, Jerez,
The leisurely speech of beyond the Tweed you will hear.
In one such place, beneath the Segura, I was.
The blasting wind screams along the narrow street, engulfing me within its solemn immensity like a frosty cloak. Tickling sensations rush through my body. I imagine giant ants, like those I have seen on TV earlier, relentlessly crawling under my skin. As I think more about these little creatures, I’m suddenly suffused with a profound sense of inescapable sadness.
At a book fair in a church on a square in Inveraray, I read a poem by Liz Lochhead. It’s the only poem she ever wrote about her husband dying, a friend I’m there with says as she shows me the book. My eyes pass each word slowly, while I travel up the road with her, Liz Lochhead, and her late husband, savouring the Gaelic names of towns and expressive phrases, sitting down on a wooden bench at a book fair in a church on a square in Inveraray.
Necklaced from Norway to Dublin
your kingship carves into oceans
“Stop!”
He sighs and brings the car to a stop for the third time in twenty minutes.
There goes the family dinner.
