it's a cyclic thing

A man who had seen many years go by was sitting at a table, chewing the inside of his bottom lip and blowing small bubbles which appeared at the corner of his mouth. A baby seated in a pram close by was doing much the same thing.

huge raindrops hanging off the railing

A row of tiny lanterns shimmering their sharp light in the soft afternoon breeze.

Sunday afternoon in Basel

It was very hot. So most of Basel had swarmed to the banks of the Rhine for something cool. They were all walking in the same direction. Backsides, young and old, mottled with creative bulges and dimples that made faces at you, were all heading upstream in their bathing costumes, with bright orange watertight designer bags slung over their shoulders. In the river itself, just as many bulges and dimples were holding onto their orange watertight designer bags packed with sandals, t-shirts, suntan oil and the car keys, as the strong current dragged them effortlessly back downstream.

Cyclists and the odd fully-dressed pedestrian watched the human specks bobbing up and down in the Rhine below, as they lazy-peddled on the road or sauntered aimlessly along the pavement. Three distracted cyclists had taken up the width of one street to themselves, discussing what it is you discuss on a Sunday afternoon. They hadn't noticed the police van behind them, which had been politely waiting for the cyclist taking up the middle of the street, to surrender and let them through. But the Sunday afternoon discussion was far too absorbing, so one policeman reached for the microphone and announced very gently over the van's loudspeaker that he didn't wish to spoil a Sunday afternoon stroll and was glad the cyclists were enjoying it so much but could they please let the police through?

i've no idea how they got out again

I saw two pigeons pecking away at bread which had been thrown into a deep public bin. It hadn't been easy to land inside it in the first place. I didn't see the first one try but I stopped to watch the second one as it aimed the opening from above, and let itself drop inside the narrow space with its wings spread out just enough to break the fall and avoid having them torn off.

mechanics

He was wearing latex gloves, fondling the insides of a motor bike, much in the same way a gynaecologist would fondle the insides of a woman.

slackening the sulk

She was smiling her adolescent smile to me. The kind you're not supposed to give to your mother. But it was so much stronger than the pout that it emerged despite her efforts to muffle it, and forced her lips into a clumsy grin any parent would die for.

i swear i did

I saw a man in town wearing a salad on his head.