Mid-Month Musings: April 2026 - What are little girls made of?

 Apologies for the variation in font size and spacing in this article - this blog refuses to maintain the choices I make in such things and I have no idea how to put it right in a way that will remain right after I publish it.

Louise 

What are little girls made of? Basically, sugar.

Those of you who are my age might remember US comedian Mark McKinney from the late-eighties cult sketch show Kids in the Hall and later from his stint appearing on, and writing for, Saturday Night Live. More recently, he played Glenn Sturges, the absurd, incompetent, naïve, weird-voiced manager of a chain store in St Louis, Missouri, in the highly enjoyable sitcom, Superstore. I mention him here because Glenn was my favorite character from that show, and one of his funniest moments was when he told his colleagues that, having been pre-diabetic for years, he had just found out that he was now fully diabetic. The joke was that he announced this news as if it was an achievement, a cause for celebration. He had finally worked his way up to actual diabetes!

        I was thinking about this when the nurse told me last week that my HbA1c test result [testing blood glucose level] had shot up to 98 and I now officially had Type 2 diabetes. Believe me, it didn't feel like a cause for celebration. In fact, my reaction was shock, fright, horror and guilt.

The guilt was because Type 2 diabetes is one of those conditions that is often viewed as being the patient’s fault. There's a widespread tendency, in the media particularly, to suggest that those with Type 2 diabetes are greedy and lacking in self-discipline, allowing themselves to get obscenely fat and bringing the disorder on themselves. Comedians often make jokes about Type 2 diabetes, frequently getting it wrong. I’ve used the flippant line ‘I ate myself into a diabetic coma’ myself in the past, intending it as a light-hearted quip that uses hyperbole for its effect. One of Seth MacFarlane’s cartoon sketches springs to mind: a grossly fat detective sits in an armchair at a murder scene, asleep while his svelte partner does all the work and keeps trying to wake him up.

 It's difficult to deny that diabetes mellitus, the other name for Type 2 diabetes, is one of those medical conditions that is often viewed as being almost a punishment for ‘bad’ personal choices, in the same way that obesity itself is. Most people are intelligent and empathetic enough to realise that, even if there is a degree of self-indulgence involved in over-eating, it is a self-indulgence most of us are guilty of, but sufferers themselves often feel responsible for their own misfortune. The reality is that people can develop Type 2 diabetes without being overweight – I have a friend who did – and not all overweight people develop Type 2 diabetes. And no one deliberately sets out to become diabetic. Seeing it simply as the result of a life of idle gluttony is incorrect, and it dismisses and diminishes the condition as being trivial, when in fact it is a serious illness.  

I admit that I personally am overweight. I do very little exercise. I’ve always hated physical activity, though I have been through periods when I’ve forced myself to do it – walking, swimming, aerobics and yoga on the Wii [surprisingly effective], keep-fit classes. But I’ve rarely enjoyed it. I’ve always over-eaten. I’m hungry most of the time and rarely feel completely full. Presumably I was born like this. I can only assume, because some people aren’t overweight, that those people either:

a) simply don’t enjoy food as much as I do, and have few cravings for it; 

b) have phenomenal self-control and live their entire lives in a state of self-denial; or 

c) defy the laws of physics and eat as much as they want but never get fat. 

Whichever it is, the fact is that some people have bodies which are more likely to develop diabetes than others. And some people have bodies that enjoy exercise more, and food less, than other people do. 

I've never understood the attraction of exercise - it makes you sweaty, it makes you hurt, it requires specialist clothes and sometimes equipment, it takes up time that could be spent doing something more enjoyable [such as eating!], it increases your risk of injury, it can breed an unhealthy competitiveness. Also, I'm extremely bad at it - I'm short, with short arms and legs, poor eyesight, poor balance, poor coordination, little strength, no stamina and little agility, and I find it difficult to understand the arcane rules of team sports. As a child, I was good at riding my bike, I loved swimming pools, and I enjoyed dancing, but that's as far as my physical prowess or interest extended. 

As an adult, I've had several short-lived phases of being 'fit'. At one point, I remember realising I could run up the hill to my house without getting breathless, which was a fabulous moment. But that took hours of hard work. And what use was it, unless I was being chased by an enraged neighbour? Even at my fittest, I was still pretty hopeless at the sort of social exercise you do with other people. I could leap around a badminton court using up huge numbers of calories but I'd rarely manage to hit the shuttlecock. And, as I have grown older, my body just seems to have decided that physical activity sucks! I have fibromyalgia. My body hurts a lot of the time. And I've got fatter over the years - these days it feels like I'm carrying round an extra person or wearing a lead-lined anorak.

Like most adult women, I've spent most of my life on a diet. But I love food. It's one of life's greatest pleasures. I love cooking, I love finding out about new foods, I love cookery programmes, I love restaurants. My ideal job would be working as a food critic. But I have spent years starving myself, keeping cakes at bay, avoiding fried foods, refusing either carbs or fats [whichever is currently deemed to make you fat] or both, in order to lose pounds which I later put back on with interest. I'm fatter now than I've ever been, despite the dieting. As I've said before, quoting Geoffrey Cannon, 'Dieting makes you fat'.

 I was told I was in the pre-diabetic range in 2021, and at first I did very well, reducing my blood sugar significantly and losing two stone in weight. But then I got very bored by the diet and my self-discipline started to crumble. I missed my annual blood test in 2025 due to accidentally booking it on a day I was unable to attend, and then forgetting to re-book it [ironically, due to the brain-fog caused by being pre-diabetic]. I acted on the 2026 reminder by immediately booking a blood test, but the nurse couldn’t get any blood out of my arms, so – both my arms looking like they'd been infested by woodworm – I had to make another appointment for a couple of days later for a second attempt. This time it worked. I took this whole experience as a 'sign' that something was wrong.

This photo shows my face looking fat.

        So, when P and I went away for a few days the day after the blood test, I was simultaneously alarmed and unsurprised to find, on the first day of our break, that I’d missed three phone calls from the GP surgery. The receptionist told me I had to make another appointment as soon as possible to see the diabetic nurse. Of course, these days, you only rarely see an actual doctor – they are like shy woodland creatures who only come out of their burrows when no one’s around. But the nurses are often nicer and seem more knowledgeable, so it doesn’t really matter - except that the doctors get paid so much more…

        Anyway, as I said, it turned out my HbA1c level had shot up, well into the diabetes range. Also, though I have been in denial about this, I have been symptomatic for some time – desperately and constantly thirsty to the point of daydreaming about water, frequently urinating, feeling very dizzy, experiencing intense fatigue, headaches, and the sort of brain-fog that has made me suspect I was getting Alzheimers. I run an online writing group and I’ve been finding it more and more difficult to do the admin – I've sometimes found myself staring at the review rota, which I write myself, as if it is the coded plans for a covert kidnapping of Melania Trump, written in Yoruba with every third letter missing and no gaps between words. I’ve made so many stupid mistakes in the past year that I'm surprised the group members haven't staged a coup and exiled me to the Institute for Stupid People. 

The ‘diabetic doctor’ told the nurse, by email, that I needed to go straight onto metformin, having never actually met or talked to me. It's these personal touches that I so admire in our medical practitioners. I collected a pack of Yaltormin SR straight after my visit to the surgery and took the first 500mg tablet that evening with my evening meal. I have to increase this to two tablets, then three and eventually four [standard dosage is 1500g-2000g]. The instructions tell me to 'increase to TWO [1g] Daily with main meal’ but they don't mention when I have to do this. I was supposed to have a half-hour 'seven-day after diagnosis' appointment with the diabetes nurse, but they couldn't fit me in until last Friday, a fortnight after my first appointment, so I decided to increase my dose of metformin after the first week. However, since then they have cancelled two further appointments because the nurse has been ill, and the appointment is now on 7 May, almost a month after my initial diagnosis. So much for the 'seven-day-after diagnosis' malarkey.  Should I increase the dose further in a few days or should I wait till I see the nurse? It's great that the NHS embeds these little mysteries in our healthcare plans, to help keep our minds active.

Despite the blood-curdlingly terrifying list of potential side effects on the info sheet inside the box, I’ve had no obvious side effects with the metformin, so far, except intense fatigue. I had that before I started taking it, but it's worsened significantly, and I have nodded off at inappropriate moments several times. Yesterday, for instance, I fell asleep sitting at the laptop with my chin in my hands, while I was re-reading the first version of this article. It's coming to something when I can't stay conscious while reading my own writing! I must have been asleep for quite a while as, when I woke up, it was too late to go to my local health shop [to buy a packet of chia seeds], which is what I'd been intending to do, and my hand, which was supporting my chin throughout, was extremely stiff and sore. I'm just glad I didn't wake up face-down on the keyboard as I'd have had a pattern of mosaic tiles across my cheek. I suspect the fatigue is beginning to lift now, as my brain isn't as foggy as it was.

        I’m now fourteen days into the new regime. I’m still in shock. I’m hoping that, as I bring down my glucose levels, my brain will start to function properly again. I've taken to watching far too many YouTube videos about how to reverse type 2 diabetes, and I'm now spending a fortune on foods that are meant to be particularly good for you, the so-called superfoods like sweet potato, broccoli, avocado, beetroot, eggs, oily fish, quinoa, bulgur wheat, plain Greek yogurt, berries, walnuts, pistachios. olives, etc. I eat so many superfoods that I ought to be a superhero by now...

The irony is that my diet wasn't all that bad before. I don't even like sweets, biscuits, cakes or sponge puddings. I don't like desserts that are overly sweet. I don't have sugar in hot drinks. I drink mostly coffee or plain water, with an occasional Diet Coke if I'm in a restaurant. I drink very little alcohol, just a very occasional glass of wine or an even more rare cocktail. I have cut back on bread significantly in the past five years and these days I rarely have more than one or two slices a day. I eat lean meat and fish, and we have vegetarian food several times a week. 

But I probably eat too much of everything, and I have gradually added a layer of 'bad food' on top of this healthy diet. I've become undisciplined. I eat treats like scones, crisps and chocolate more often than I should, often having a portion of chips in cafes to accompany my healthy sandwich, for instance. I’ve gradually become less and less able to control myself, and become more and more depressed as a result. I’ve done very little exercise in the past two years, partly due to being overweight which makes exercise difficult, and partly due to problems with my back, the pain from which makes me disinclined to move.

 I am starting to go for short walks now and intending to build up to longer walks and other exercises. And I’ve cut out all sugary treats and reduced my portion size. I’ve already lost five pounds, but this has been due to shock and fear really and might not be sustainable.

        It is possible to bring your blood glucose level down, even below the cut-off point for diabetes – I have two friends with Type 2 diabetes who have done this – but not everyone can manage it. I’m hoping initially just to stabilize it as far as I can, and get myself feeling more normal.

        I’m sharing this with you because it makes me feel better, and also it is an important life-event for me. I’d welcome any comments, particularly from any of you who suffer from Type 2 diabetes yourselves. One good side-effect I’ve noticed as the past week has worn on is that my appetite seems to have decreased and I’m not craving food as much as I was. It isn’t as dramatic an effect as Mounjaro, but it definitely works as a mild appetite suppressant for me. This might wear off, of course.

I’ll keep you posted about my progress in losing weight and reducing my HbA1c level.

I'd like to congratulate and celebrate my two friends, D and T, for working so hard and so successfully to reduce their HbA1c levels after being diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes. They are an inspiration. 

Apologies for the variation in font size and spacing in this article - this blog refuses to maintain the choices I make in such things and I have no idea how to put it right in a way that will remain right after I publish it.

Louise 

 

 

 

WRITER SHOWCASE UPDATES No 1 - Ron Hardwick , L.N.Hunter, Jane Langan, Ruth Loten

 Over the past three years, I have been posting a Writer Showcase once a month, each focusing on a specific writer. I have finished doing this now, for the time being at least, but I am inviting everyone who was showcased to write an update on their writing-related activities since they were showcased. I intend topublish three or four of these updates each month.  

I'm starting with four of my earliest showcased writers: Ron Hardwick, L.N.Hunter, Jane Langan and Ruth Loten. I've arranged them in alphabetical order according to surname, for fairness - there is no rank order or anything like that. Writers were invited to write what they wanted, in their own words, and could include a short extract from any recent work. I also encouraged them to include a writing prompt or tip.

*****

Ron Hardwick

1 February 2026

"Louise has kindly asked me to pen an update covering certain aspects of my writing since she showcased me back in 2023. Well, I’m still writing, and, if you judge quantity over quality, I’m more prolific than ever. I’ve just written my 360^th short story and I endeavour to write one a week. I’ve no interest in writing a novel, because I may die before I finish it, but I love writing short fiction.

I’m entering fewer competitions these days, because the rejection ratio makes the effort unrewarding, but I have had modest success in some areas. Pure Slush, an Australian e-zine, has to date published eight of my short stories in consecutive editions. Write Time, the over 60s magazine for the terminally bewildered, has last month published one of my stories in its fourth anthology, having published a previous one in its second.

The item that has given me the greatest satisfaction since the showcase was with regard to an international competition called ‘The Face Project.’ The organisers published the photographs of 28 faces on their website and you had to write a 1,000-word piece of flash fiction about one or more of them. I wrote one for each of the 28 faces and my number 19, which I entitled ‘The Artist,’ was successful. When you think there were many hundreds of entries from all over the world, it wasn’t a bad effort.

The 20/20 Club is of vital importance to me and I engage with it at every opportunity, both in terms of submitting work for review each cycle, and reviewing other narratives, as well as entering all competitions. I’ve had some success with 20/20 Club competitions, too, and the cyclical reviews are so important for developing my writing.

I still concentrate on writing humorous stories. Not for me the angst and disapprobation of much short fiction I read or listen to nowadays. If any of my stories make me laugh when I re-read them, then I deem them a success.

Here’s a brief extract from one of my recent stories that sort of illustrates my current ‘style.’ My protagonist, the misanthropic Arthur Bulstrode is attending a mindfulness course by mistake, when he is supposed to be next door at an accountancy course.

Arthur moved his seat. He was just biting into his second bacon roll when he became aware of a woman about his own age hovering over him.

‘Do you mind if I sit here?’ she said.

‘Suit yourself. It’s a free country. At least it was the last time I looked.’

The woman sat down. Arthur recognised her from the mindfulness course.

‘You’re Arthur, is that right?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’m Beatrice. My friends call me Bea.’

‘I don’t have any friends to call me anything,’ said Arthur.

‘What nonsense. A well-presented man like you? You must have a wide circle of friends.’

‘Just Zorro.’

‘Zorro?’

‘My cat.’

Beatrice seemed to doubt whether Arthur was being entirely serious. She changed tack.

‘Arthur, what do you hope you achieve from this course?’

Arthur considered for a moment. He decided to have some fun with this earnest, bespectacled woman with her freckled, pleasant, open face, hippy clothes and golden Alice band in her ginger hair.

‘Well, Beatrice, when I walk, I stroll. When I eat, I chew. That’s the sort of cutting-edge mindfulness thinking I’m going to gain from Joanna on her magical mystery tour.’

‘Oh, Arthur, can I call you Art?’

‘No.’

‘Pity, such a creative name. Arthur, that’s fascinating. Such unusual metaphors, but I see what you’re driving at. Like Eckhard Tollé said: “Wherever you are, be there totally.” That’s your point, isn’t it?’

‘That’s one assumption. Another might be that I’m talking bollocks.’

‘Oh, Arthur, such a dry sense of humour. I can see that behind your sarcasm, you’re embracing Joanna’s techniques with gusto. Do you know why I’m here?’

‘You’re a felon and this is part of your community service?’

 

I want to continue writing, even if only for a hobby. My attempt at self-publishing several volumes of my short fiction was disastrous, so I won’t be doing that again.

The pleasure I get from writing is difficult to describe, but it keeps me motivated through the long retirement years.

I have one piece of advice which might help other writers. I’ve started using Microsoft One Note for freewriting before each story. It’s better than writing longhand. You stick random textual ideas into One Note and from these emerge other ideas and gradually a theme and a structure emerges. You build up a sort of flow-chart, which you can then save as a pdf file and paste it into the blank pages of the story you are about to write. It then becomes a permanent reference point for your narrative.

Finally, I want to thank Louise for giving me the opportunity to update my portfolio and to advise all of us who write to keep on writing – don’t forget - fame is just around the corner."

*****

L.N.Hunter

"I’ve been writing and submitting short stories wherever I can, and am getting very close to 100 publications (out of over 800 submissions). Alas, my intentions for more novels have somewhat fallen by the wayside, partly because it’s difficult to build up enthusiasm for putting in all the work for longform writing when I can get a quick, and admittedly smaller, dopamine hit from short work. I’ve also recently discovered ‘modern board-gaming’ and am spending far too much time playing the excellent Ark Nova (among other games) when I should be writing. Still, should anyone want to give The Feather and the Lamp a nice review on Amazon, I might regain my enthusiasm for novel writing!

         Rather than include some writing here, I’d like to point readers at my three most recent publications, all audio. I think audiobooks and story podcasts are great, and find it incredibly satisfying to hear someone do a good job of reading something I wrote.

 

• The Search on the Kaidankai podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-search-by-ln-hunter-a-sci-fi-horror-story-about-ai-humanity-and-the-unknown--71182681
• See No Evil on the Creepy Corner podcast: https://7e88a057-299b-4574-9e6b-ec593e75eb99.libsyn.com/see-no-evil
• Fine Dining on the No Sleep podcast: https://www.thenosleeppodcast.com/episodes/s23/23x15

 

It does so happen these are all horror stories, so might not be to everyone’s tastes, but the podcasts are all fantastic, and it’s worth checking out a few episodes. Interestingly, The Search was one of my earliest bits of published writing, having appeared in Matt Greenwell’s Machine way back in 2019, a book that had its beginnings within an OU creative writing group.

Not a writing challenge, but a submissions one. No matter how difficult it might feel, get out there and submit your work—let other people see it. It’s even better if someone’ll pay you for it, but don’t expect to get rich. Yes, rejections hurt, at least in the beginning, but that’s just part of the business, and you will definitely get used to it. Besides, most rejections are more about the pieces suitability for the publication, not about the quality of your writing. One note, though - do ensure you make the story as good as you can before submitting: use spelling and grammar checking tools, and do let someone else critique or at least proofread it. 

Scan the Submission Grinder (https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/) for potential outlets, or if you’re into SFF/Horror, places like HorrorTree (https://horrortree.com/); and there are various genre-specific submissions groups on Facebook.

 

If anyone wants to find out more or get in touch, visit https://linktr.ee/L.N.Hunter or https://www.facebook.com/L.N.Hunter.writer/.  "

 

 

 

***** 

Jane Langan

“Since my Writer Showcase, I have been writing my trilogy of dark fantasy books, inspired by Gaelic mythology. The series is called The Queen of Conbairn. The first two books, The Impossible Queen and The Queen's Crucible (Links below), are in the world, and the first draft of the third is nearly complete and due out this year. I have been travelling back and forth to Ireland for the last thirty years, as my husband's parents are from there, but I have learned more in the last two years about the mythology than I ever did before. It's fascinating. So, lots of research, which has been great fun. 

https://mybook.to/TheQueensCrucible

https://mybook.to/TheImpossibleQueen

 

Here are the first five hundred words of my novel, The Impossible Queen. 

 

Áed

I’m chilled to the bone, lying at her feet, bleeding. She’s holding a fancy-ass dagger with red gems along the handle, picking at her pointy nails with the sharp end. The Black Throne looks uncomfortable, yet she slouches in it like it’s the most comfortable chair in the world. Her back is against one arm, slender leather-clad legs crossed and slung over the other. Long, wavy black hair, the colour of raven's wings, cascades down her back.

We have been like this for a while. Enough time for me to view the Ogham symbols carved into the massive carved lion's feet of the burnt wood chair, famous for surviving the fire during the Cruel Massacre. More than enough time for me to see the images above her head of human knights killing my kind. Fuck her. Shifting, I grunt, shifting to a slightly less painful position as the woman above me sighs. Full lips form into a pout. Well, sorry to disturb your manicure. Maybe I wouldn’t be so noisy if my arm weren't dislocated at the shoulder. Or if I didn’t have two, no, three, broken fingers and several broken ribs. Or my normally very nice nose wasn’t broken, and one of my eyes wasn’t sealed shut, because of your friendly torturer's fists. What I wouldn’t give for my magic right now. Fucking humans.

The sound of heavy feet draws my attention away from the throne. Ah, it’s my favourite torturer. Skinny human number one. Probably has a miniature dick. Probably shouldn’t have suggested that, as he held a hammer to my fingers. He’s very close to the pretty queen. Shut up, brain, not pretty. Evil queen. That’s right. Very, very, evil queen. He likes her. The smell of his arousal wafts in the air, even through my disjointed nose, ugh. As if. She’s smiling at him. By all the gods, I wish I could cover my nose. The stench coming off him is going to make me throw up. Concentrate, prisoner… break… keep going… Prince… kill… ears… Shit. He’s staring at me, and so is she.

She moves to a sitting position in one fluid movement. Clicking her fingers, she says, ‘Someone loosen its chains, I want to see it standing up.’

Boots hit the floor running, echoing through the large, dark hall. A couple of burly soldiers loosen my shackles slightly so I can stand. Although there’s no way I’ll be running anywhere. The manacles keep my ankles and wrists bound close together, forcing a hunched shuffle. There’s an iron collar around my neck and a chain running from my neck to both my wrist and ankle restraints. Nope. Going nowhere fast. Whatever you say about humans, their ironworking skills are second to none. Fair play. Ah, the evil queen is getting off her throne.

 

WRITING ADVICE:

My best writing advice -  Treat writing like any job. Sit at your desk and write something - anything - and hopefully something will emerge. A nugget could become a gold mine.”

*****

 Ruth Loten

"Since being featured on the Showcase in March 2023, my writing life has been extraordinarily busy. At that time, as well as being in various anthologies, I had published two novels for adults and one for children, as well as a short story collection. The current total (as of February 2026) stands at four novels for adults, two for children, a short story collection, two short story/poetry collections and four picture books. I have also had my work used as part of an art installation which is fixed to the outer wall of Brightlingsea Lido and tells its story through the eyes of a local resident. The Brightlingsea Literary Festival, which I co-founded is also still going strong and 2026 is its fourth year of running.

My historical fiction trilogy is now complete, and I am currently working on two spin-off series of cosy crime and romance novels set in the same universe. My trilogy for children is also complete – though the third book is not yet published. However, my eldest son is now requesting a spin-off series from that as well, so time will tell whether I walk away from The Courts altogether! There is however, another children’s series in the pipeline, hopefully with an accompanying picture book.

Outside of series planning, I have another standalone novel which should be ready for publication in February 2027 and two more in the planning stages, so I have plenty of writing to keep me occupied over the next few years and as my youngest is growing up rapidly, I’m finding I have a bit more time to write than in previous years, so I’m hoping the process will speed up somewhat!

The biggest change has, I think, been in our publishing company, Castle Priory Press. When Jane and I started it, our initial thought was that it would make our own work look professional, even if it did nothing else. However, we were delighted when people started bringing their books to us and I am so proud of what we’ve achieved over the last three years. Not only have we published several of our own pieces, but we have also published books by a number of other authors, including some who have come to us after previously being traditionally published. Our most recent step forward is to investigate the possibility of offering traditional publishing contracts alongside our hybrid model – for us, this is huge. It’s something we always said we wanted to do in the future, but as these things often do, it’s come much sooner than we anticipated. As a company, we are also working in partnership with Brightlingsea Literary Festival and Brightlingsea Gamers’ Guild, to run a CIC called Pens and Dragons. Based in Brightlingsea, it’s a Centre for Storytelling, and runs book groups and writing groups alongside role-playing games, art workshops and community groups. In practical terms for us, it means that all our authors currently have a guaranteed physical space in which to sell their books. It’s still only small, but this was another idea that was meant to be two years in the planning and overtook us a little bit. The initial text messages were exchanged 20^th January 2025 and we opened our doors 2^nd April 2025!

 

Long-Term Goals

I have book releases scheduled up to summer 2027, so in some senses my long-term goals are more of the same. However, I have lots of writing to do as well and the main goal is, I think, to make time to do more book events and to continue expanding Castle Priory Press.

 

Writing Challenge

This isn’t just for other writers – I have set myself the same goal for the next few years. Each month take a photo and use it as a prompt for a poem and a short story. The story could either expand on the ‘story’ within the poem, or could be a completely different idea taken from the same visual source."

Just One

 

1415.

Amongst so many, what is one more?

A statistic.

The loss that made a country ask,

Could it still rule the waves?

 

In the face of such tragedy,

what right have I to mourn?

The nation lost its figurehead:

46,680 tonnes of pride and majesty.

Compared to this, what was my eleven stones of loss?

A drop in the ocean,

but a drop whose ripples spread far and wide.

son, brother, friend

a soft smile

a gentle word

a loving touch

a hole in my heart the size of the sea

which stopped his

a sister bereft

a mother prostrate

a grief too great to bear

reaching forward through the years.

 

National tragedy

forever remembered

Hood, a name of world-renown

but its beating heart remains largely anonymous

little more than a number,

a list on a website,

a memorial,

dwarfing its constituent parts,

for what is one

in 1415?

 

But he was my one.  "

*****