Monday 23 January 2012

Small Stone - Jan 23rd


Man Outside the British Library

He sits outside the crowded café eating a ham panini. The brushed steel of the chair sends icy shivers through the thin worsted of his suit trousers. He glances through the steamy windows and wishes he had bought a coffee, but when he ordered the white wine he had not known there were no seats left. His hand brushes his chin. He should have shaved. Instead, he chose ten more minutes in bed. Better that than face the frosty dawn. A finger of breeze flicks through his small pile of papers, threatening to lift them from the table. He places a large, leather bound volume on top of the errant heap. The red book is itself overflowing. Stuffed between its leaves are loose letters and clippings from newspapers. His documents are a metaphor for his life - a messy affair, cluttered, disorganised and inconstant danger of flying out of control.