I had a dream that me and my twin sister were in a car crash. We both died, but we carried on being alive inside cuddly toys. We were for sale in a toy shop and a little boy came in with his mum and she told him he could pick any two [...]

Teach yourself to worry about nothing
not to dread new emails in your inbox
what kind of letters the postman will bring
bills dropping on the porch floor like breezeblocks

Picture your name engraved on a tombstone
etched by the day you were born, today’s date.
Take ten minutes extra for lunch, go home
and don’t apologise for being late

Take a siesta, [...]

It’s hard to imagine my housemate coming home
to find me unconscious at the bottom of the stairs
my head cracked against the radiator
the carpet splattered with blood.
It’s hard to imagine my family gathered in a room
while a surgeon tells them ‘I’m sorry, we did all we could.’
It’s hard to imagine that I’ll collapse
and a passing member [...]

I love the way your face lights up
when I go to the supermarket for milk
and come back with a bottle of red wine
and two Kinder Eggs
and I love the way you apologise
without actually saying anything
instead you’ll bake flapjack
or leave the door open when you’re having a bath
and it’s just your way of saying sorry
for spilling [...]

It’s so cold at six on a December morning
it’s when you think about changing your job
find something closer to home
hopefully for a bit more money.
You spend your lunchtimes emailing CVs,
circling vacancies in the jobs section
of the Norwich Evening News

but then you hear Slade and Wham
and for a few mintues can think
about sitting with your family [...]

You shout crossword clues
while I iron my work shirts
and it’s payday tomorrow
and there’s a stack of DVDs we ordered on Amazon
we still haven’t watched
and Stuart Maconie is on the radio 
you like him
and we’ve skyplus’d The Apprentice
and it’s only two weeks until we go to New York
and the chicken is nearly roasted
and our friends will be [...]

I am sat by your bed on a Saturday afternoon
and you tell me the things you’ve realised you’ll never do
fly in a helicopter
watch the Foo Fighters live
do the Monopoly board pub crawl.

We went to different unis
but still emailed each other most days
best friends since infants when we’d play in sandpits
and with Micro Machines on your bedroom [...]

I don’t blame you for leaving me
I see your new boyfriend around sometimes
he seems nice,
always says hello
and I think he’ll make you happy.

You said any clothes you’d left at the house
could go to the charity shop
and the lady in Barnados beamed such a smile
when I came in with a bin bag under each arm.
I took [...]