I’ve been having some fun trying to write some poems in the voice of a fictional curmudgeon from the North of England. The series is tentatively entitled “The Curmudgeon’s Diary”. My fictional curmudgeon expresses the dyspeptic and sometimes controversial views one might expect from such a character—the kind of guy who has become cranky in retirement and is prone to saying cringeworthy things that embarrass his grown children. Postscript Magazine has kindly given my curmudgeon his first outing in a poem entitled “Ariana Grande Comes to Lunch: A Modern Tableau En Famille”. If you don’t mind a little gentle mockery of the man-bun, their wearers, and their wearers’ detractors, you can read “Ariana Grande Comes to Lunch” by clicking here.

Postscript was established in Paris in 2018 and is currently based in the UAE. Its editors explain on Postscript‘s website that the magazine “push[es] readers to leave their comfort zones, to go beyond what they know, [and] to be culturally curious and compassionate”. The October 2022 issue of Postscript where my poem appears—the “Alpha” issue—examines toxic masculinity from multiple perspectives.