at the job centre

when the trainer was giving us uplifting aphorisms

everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right

it’s not yet the end

Charmaine, 38, victim of a brain aneurysm

said, hang on, I’ve got a saying I like

a friend gave me a gift

a box of darkness

it took me some time to realise

it was a gift too

thank you Charmaine

the trainer said
at lunch time we made jaffles

and then everyone sat in the circle of power

and said nice things about each other

these people with dyslexia, and fat, and shy, and afraid

Daniel, the 62 year old Irish carpenter was mostly deaf

though he had an anecdote of holding out a gun

to shut somebody up

and Kenny had been in jail

though he looked great in his new purple shirt and braces

but his black eyes bulged

a lamb lost on the other side of the fence