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I Want You, Back.


The model of a spine in my Chiropractors’ window is lit throughout the night.

(I’m referring to their business and not their personal address, hence the position of the apostrophe.)

I discovered this piece of backbone-based trivia whilst on the bus yesterday evening. By the time I zoomed past, the shop was shut and all was dark, save the spinal column window display, which was rendered beautifully visible, thanks to a strategically positioned lamp. It stood there like a vertebral version of a Barbers’ pole, hoping to encourage business. Only passing arthropods would feel left out.

You might think this was a waste of electricity, but I don’t. The world starts to look very dingy in mid-January when the Christmas decorations come down. Yawning spaces appear in front rooms, where trees once stood. Streets that felt safer after midnight, thanks to festive illuminations, revert to their usual streetlampless, pitch-black, stabby, council-cutbacks-lead-to-fear-filled selves. In light of this New Year bleakness, who’d begrudge a blazing dorsum? Sorry: this morning, I swallowed a thesaurus.


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