Author: Simon
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Twenty Five Pounds
December 9th. 2023 Ukrainian shells used today 2496. Russian shells used today 9567… Out of the deluge of information, the numbing vastness of the trivial and the profound, this sobering fact, flickering alone on the screen, got my attention. The Ukrainians are fucked. The statistic appears in Present Shock 2 (2023) the opening piece in…
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Anaktuvk Pass
We came upon the hunters three hours snow machine ride north east of the village, in a broad mountain valley. Red trails led across the snow to where two men had dragged the caribou they had shot, and where they were butchering the carcasses. They were old men and…
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Crossing An Ocean
The beginning of December. It is still raining outside and it seems to have barely got light, even though it’s noon. Rachel and I face a long winter of dark country evenings alone in the house now the children have all left. I imagine that we are on a ship, crossing a cold, northern ocean.…
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Birth
The first time we went to the hospital we took the underground. We walked across the Common to the station. Rachel paused every couple of minutes and held the rail that ran long the footpath, head down waiting for the contraction to finish…
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Perfect Behaviours
It is one of history’s minor points of interest that newly wealthy beneficiaries of industrial innovation assume the imagery, values and lifestyles of the old way of doing things. Think nineteenth century Manchester cotton barons purchasing landed estates and aristocratic titles…
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Youth
We walked in after work on Friday, passing the turning into Coire Lagan, and following the line of the ridge above us. We went along the path with the packs on our backs. We didn’t carry much. A single nine millimeter rope, a few rocks on wire with quick draws, slings, half a dozen screw…
