• SNAKE EYES

    They roll in, one after the next, after the next, gaps that appear in their rank are soon enough filled. By night you mark them by their red lights, lemmings with no cliff in sight, so they sit one alongside the next in the queue, disgorging their chattering, smiling contents into the vast building, and…


  • HELL’S PRISONER

    I am pressed into a seat that would conform only to the body of some alien creature, or so it seems, for hours into a flight that increasingly seems eternal, particularly for the baby two rows back, who, like me would much rather be anywhere else. The crew dims the cabin lights the universal indicator…


  • STEPPING IN IT

    Over the next few weeks I shall step into more churches than is safe for a formerly Jewish Buddhist, but in Europe it seems no tour is complete without one or more churches, at least one of which will be the most beautiful cathedral in all of [choose any country you wish and inserted here.]…


  • NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

    The church is about half full, which is to be kind, a quarter of the pews are filled, but people are spread widely apart to give the family, to give the priests, just to be on the safe side to give God, the impression of a fuller house, although it being a Mass of Resurrection…