This week ...

This week between Christmas and New Year

I’ve been in retreat – at home, doors and windows,

curtains and blinds closed against the heat;

neglecting the marketing I should be doing

for my new books, and the dusting and ironing.

‘Next week,’ I tell one who phones to meet. ‘Now

I have appointments.’ (I don’t say they’re with me.)

I’m dabbling in some of my old books of magic,

trying out new spells and rituals, toying with

lapsed meditations and manifestation techniques.

I’m preparing idiosyncratic but tasty tidbits to eat;

deferring the exercise routine; catching up with 

the new Doctor Who, and of course the yacht race.

‘I might never emerge,’ I whisper to myself, and giggle.