Up the hill, after the center of Widcombe and the train station and the canal crossing, is the house that will outlive me and all my old friends. There was no canonical order to the history of careless nights spent in the cheapest public houses of old Bath. As we dug into the now-extinct culture … Continue reading Prior Park
I’m looking in from the road on a misty night at the Cape house I grew up in. It's half past five in the morning. The ancient white farmhouse, nearly as old as the country itself, stands renovated by its new owners. I can see the glow of the kitchen windows on the tall … Continue reading A Dreaming at the Tulip Hotel
When the first explorers discovered the glacier-covered archipelago about 1,000 miles above Norway called "Svalbard", the land probably appeared slowly from the grey arctic backdrop, the imposing mountains silhouetted like a Lovecraftian alien planet. For me, Svalbard came suddenly into view from an ever-lightening night sky as my plane traveled further North. The dark of … Continue reading A Land of Geology: Part 1
I think my friend James was born in the wrong time in history. He and his violin were made for the palaces of the Habsburgs as they stood before the Great War. He was meant for the world described by Winston Churchill in the opening passages of his book, “The World Crisis," when he wrote, … Continue reading Spirit Reports Chapter 7: James
In the morning, in Prozac dreams, I have known myself to go to war. The fields of battle used to move and speak to me like waves and wind speak to the hull of a warship. I knew combatants as my friends from when I was younger than I am now. At the end … Continue reading Acts of War
Back home, my room is on the first floor, off the passageway to the Great Hall. Its not really mine any more though- its now on the market. It was listed after Avalon sold, which was a little after my grandfather died. That was when the Green Knight came to call, and Tristan and Isolde … Continue reading The Green Knight
I would like to fix something in earnest if possible. The things around my house, from the tap to the mattress frame, the burned out light bulbs no one has bothered to throw away, broken thermal fuses and half used cleaning supplies, all speak to an intrinsic nature when we are aware of our own … Continue reading Maintenance
In my last days as a student in Dublin Ireland, I took the early morning train to the city of Belfast. Though I was curious about the site of the tumultuous Troubles, and to see how a quarter of a country functions under a separate government, I will admit I made the trip because of … Continue reading H & W Yard Numbers 400 and 401
The ancient Soviet pipes in my friend’s apartment Left the water tasting Strongly of Iron Which came from the kitchen sink. Žižkov Television Tower stands Alien in the sky Over the Jewish quarter, And the medieval city. I peer through grates at the cluttered old cemetery. I got here on a night … Continue reading The Hunger Wall
Somewhere, you're playing board games on the coffee table with the dual innocence where we once were as children, but now we're soiled skin. There’s too much baggage in me and my brother's bedrooms. So you start anew at six and seven years old. These are the benefits of skipping the younger years. While you're at it, … Continue reading I Waterlogged the Electric Kettle
Ryan Shockey Davis 