Unable to stay on the Surface.

Ok, it may simply be a result of wearing new trousers - but my legs are improbably heavy. And besides that.....what will come of me - and everything around me - if I don’t switch on a light?

My limbs are horizontal – I am lying on the spot where my lover most recently slept – and her absence probably explains my inability to move more than anything else, yet my legs feel as if they weigh a ton.

I can’t lift one from the other.

The cat stares at me through the dusk that has filled the room, the temperature is dropping and I should light a fire and feed him, but these things are beyond me and I remain unable to conjure them into being.

I know that I should move.

But I also know that I could close my eyes and these things would probably no longer matter.

Except the space that my lover filled will still be void.

I close my eyes anyway .

I fall, and fall into the darkness, tumbling like Alice, unable to stop.

Until the bottom rises up and obliges.

I open my eyes and look around.

It is no longer dark.

Bright sunshine – bright such is only possible in the fondest of memories – covers a table, set on the pavement under a faded sign stating Billiards.

I sit.

There is a small cup of espresso on my left, a bowl of mashed potatoes and chicken on my right.

A waitress drifts past.

“Eat me.” She whispers.

“Drink me.” She whispers this too.

I don’t really need to - I like the size I am - but I am tempted.

I look round and this is a mistake as table, chicken, coffee and sunlight all disappear and all I can see are the two eyes of the cat shining with the last light of the day.

I stand, it’s a struggle but I achieve verticality.

I go to the kitchen and feed him and two others who appear from nowhere and then I go outside to collect wood.

A gale is blowing.

Hurrying leaves sweep me off my feet and drop me in the pile on the ground .

From here I can see the first star hesitatingly taking its place between the naked branches of the tree, pointing like arms to the heavens.

Rain is coming.

If I stay here I will drown.

I will not be able to swim in these trousers.