The Apple-Tree Throne

by Premee Mohamed

Autumn is when adventures begin, when the air is crisp and the paths are dry and the leaves whisper and the scent of smoke on the downs travels like a secret. It must be autumn, when everyone is held in abeyance between their home and their destination, when every trip is a journey.

Laughter was better than bread, we used to say; it could be shared infinitely amongst the squad, and it did not have weevils in it.

coins have a permanence that verges on human stubbornness; a coin wants to exist unchanged.

You’re my friend because you’re a good man, Ben. And because keeping company with you makes me want to be a good man myself. It’s not an easy thing.

I wonder about marriage, about being chosen for someone, someone being chosen for me; and waking up every morning and being chosen again and again and again, till the day we died.