Prose

NLMG a fence

keeping me from stepping into the field

NLMG a big lot

of sky

NLMG I lost

Ruth, then I lost Tommy

NLMG you might get

resentful - about my bedsit, my car

NLMG hands and

feet chopped off

NLMG ordering her to

look up at the woods

NLMG soldiers in World War Two

being kept in prison camps

NLMG waiting for the moment

when you realise you really are different

NLMG even the solitude,

I’ve grown to quite like

NLMG Marie-Claude has given

everything for you

NLMG in the same way someone

might be afraid of spiders

NLMG children demonstrably

superior…frightened people

NLMG they came to consider

how you were reared, whether you should have been brought into existence at all…it was too late

NLMG cabinet ministers,

bishops, all sorts of famous people coming to attend

NLMG poor creatures.

What did we do to you?

NLMG how can you ask

a world that has come to regard cancer as curable…to go back to the dark days

NLMG you were lucky

pawns

NLMG you were less

than human, so it didn’t matter

NLMG to prove you had

souls at all

NLMG rehearsing his

Shakespeare

NLMG strong personalities

in your group

NLMG your lives are

set out for you

NLMG Laura…looking

vacantly towards the motorway

NLMG a little girl…holding

to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could no remain…pleading, never to let her go

NLMG there are people…who

dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs

NLMG did someone

think we didn’t have souls

NLMG he carried on his work

in a remote part of Scotland, where…he thought he’d attract less attention

NLMG he’d taken his research much

further than anyone before him, far beyond legal boundaries

NLMG it might be just some trend

that came and went…but for us, it’s our life

FRANK. in my joy I

thrust my hand into the live embers

FRANK. Mr Kirwin had

shown me extreme kindness

FRANK. contrived a fan of

branches, which roused the embers

The monster has the same control of fire that humans are thought to be the only master of

FRANK. the children shrieked,

and one of the women fainted

FRANK. I saw the figure

of a man at a distance

FRANK. I bitterly

want a friend

FRANK. I ought to

be thy Adam

FRANK. I ardently wished

to extinguish the life which I had so thoughtlessly bestowed

FRANK. a new species would

bless me as its creator and source

FRANK. such as even

Dante could not have conceived

FRANK. breathless horror and

disgust filled my heart

FRANK. even you turned

from me in disgust

FRANK. I was benevolent and

good; misery made me a fiend

FRANK. I…saved her,

and dragged her to the shore

FRANK. his religion and wealth

rather than the crime…had been the cause of his condemnation

FRANK. I vowed eternal hatred

and vengeance to all mankind

FRANK. men appear to me

as monsters thirsting for each other’s blood

FRANK. torn by

remorse

FRANK. a crown of distinction

on her head

FRANK. how was I terrified

when I viewed myself in a transparent pool

FRANK. do your duty towards me,

and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind

FRANK. here were men

who…knew more

FRANK. they all

died to my hands

FRANK. if our impulses were confined

to hunger, thirst, and desire, we might be nearly free

FRANK. the world was to me

a secret, which I desired to discover

FRANK. my mother was dead,

but we had still duties which we ought to perform

FRANK. how dangerous is the

acquirement of knowledge

FRANK. do not waste

your time upon this; it is sad trash

FRANK. I believed that exercise

and amusement would then drive away incipient disease