Merciful

I'm feeling very merciful towards politicians. It's been coming on for a while- and it surprises me- because I've gone through most of my life viewing them as the enemy- but there it is...

The coronavirus has a lot to do with it.

The virus is new- and nobody understands it or how it should best be managed- and the politicians are the poor saps (they wanted it and now they've got it) who have to stand behind lecterns to channel the universal ignorance and make it sound like knowledge and determination- while the cameras register every hesitation and sniff and inadvertent touch of the face.

The Last Night

I dreamed we were moving house- and it was, in fact, our last night in the old home.

The people next door were having a party in their garden- which seemed continuous with our own and not separated from it by any hedge, fence or wall. A young man from the party walked over and presented me with a firework. I thought how odd it was that we'd never spoken before in all the time we'd been neighbours.

The firework burned blue and green- while its cardboard container folded down- like self-activated origami- to form a delicate, little paper sculpture of an animal resembling a peke.

A woman and a little girl from next door joined me- and I gave the paper dog to the child.