In a large semi-detached timber dwelling doubling as a restaurant, a patron has

ordered something no longer on the menu. Verb. To hit someone with a horse.

To run into someone with an old race horse with a royal title in its name e.g.

prince queen. An old track horse put out to pasture and watched sentimentally

by a stooped man with a yellow beard. Hit meaning pushed up against without

serious intent, but not a brush … less an accident or bang! The slash of white on

the horse's head meeting with the middle of the chest. A good daub. The way

people without hands learn to paint with their feet. Painting a horse with a slash

of white chalk on its head. Riding a horse into a canvas to let the simple stable-

man know which horses are 'out' and which are 'in' as far as the pasture goes.

Old grass. You spat from your mouth and decided you couldn't live in the

country or wondered whether an old race horse had pissed on this part of the

paddock (the taste left in the mouth after you've eaten with a brand new spoon

but forgotten to wash the cutlery). A sink full of cutlery. Dangerous as a frothy

sink full of new knives. Cleaning dirty windows with an old sock.