London torn. Night and day. Sinners and angels. Debut novel by Mark A. King, available now
FAQs We are near the end now. I once harboured you – in roughened houses, in biblical arks, behind strengthened doors and the curled razor barricades of Flanders. You cut me with sharpened metals from the earth. Peeled my skin. Pulped my flesh. Yet, you nurtured and respected me. We once were …
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Mirror | Mirror Her paddleboat is a glorified bicycle on water. Yet it skims the mirrored surface, on dreams of tranquillity. She is leaving the shores of eroded memories, of this long and prosperous life. She envisions the sunsets of Monet. How she has lived. How she has loved. How she has taken everything, from …
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A Woman Needs a Man like a Fish Needs a Bicycle Ariel was the pretty one. The one the sailors died for. The one the crustaceans sang to. Ariel was lured to the stagnant lands, the desolate dunes and the harsh dryness of air and sun. By…by…a man. A man! She’d seen his type before. …
Angel of Death She walks wards of clinical hinterland and navigates paths of life and death. Her uniform is always clean, crisp and blindingly white. She looks like the model professional and her smile is that of cherubim. She gleams brightly at the visitors. But they infest the hospital. They are like parasites around their …
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Construction Spat from the heavens. Wherever she worked in her life she felt alone – she felt different. Today would be the worst day. Under an incendiary morning sky, the skeletal frameworks of scaffolding impaled the horizon. She knew they’d be up there. In the heavens, they’d be judging her. A construction site is no …
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St George – Slayer of dragons and lover of honey. Saint George, or Georgios of Lydda, recalled the battle. The North Dragon had reeked of the seas; of ancient brine and decayed prey. The dragon glanced at him contemptuously. His face was coloured of pink coral and diluted blood. “You have no business here, boy …
Fragments He sees the dragons, or maybe he doesn’t. His people are descended from dragons. The colour in his eyes is fading. Have they now come for him? Visions come. Visions go. They permeate his mind like the fragments of decay and disease. Dementia is spiral of irretrievable loss. Perhaps one day the very fabric …
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I was lucky enough to be accepted as a judge for the fab Flash! Friday, and blessed to be paired with the super-talented, funny and kind Tamara Shoemaker as fellow judge for Dragon Team 2. This was our first session and what am amazing experience it was...
The Basilica of Bethlehem I fumble as I approach the sacred Basilica, the upturned wine glass that stretches ten-miles in diameter. I bow my head, respectfully, as I follow the procession ‘neath the spire, the stem, the funnel that stretches endlessly into a cask-oak coloured sky. On stony bridges, we walk, over the streams of …
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Judge, Dread You sit there and judge me. Perhaps, you are in your leisurewear, in the sanctuary of your home, with a glass of wine in hand, overlooking vistas of crumpled mountain and flaming sky. Perhaps you are on a bus, holding a festive bake in one hand and corporate coffee cup in the other. …
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Metropolitan Dreams 