So now I’m lying in bed and listening to the rain.
The sky is grey and heavy, the rain is heavy and wet.
Fat drops fall to the concrete like drip drip drip.
I could be anywhere in the world but I’m not.
I’m in Budapest and the city is crying big fat tears.
The Danube is flowing and filling, the Danube is threatening to flood.
I’m safe in my bed and I’m sad it my apartment and I don’t know why.

This piece was written while I was working as a tour guide in Europe and essentially questioning what the hell I was doing there. The piece moves back and forth between Budapest and Melbourne and is about missed opportunities and missing home.

Patrick's first word was ‘No’ and he's spent the majority of his life attempting to remedy that attitude. When he's not writing he's walking, be it across countries, through mountains or to his local pub, taking curious baby steps to wherever it is he's going. You can keep up with him – he's really very slow – at www.patboxall.com

Pat is also the winner of 2020 Stuart Hadow short story competition.

Acknowledgements:

Memoria was written,  produced, edited and presented by Natalie Vella.

I carried him was written and read by Pat Boxall.  The story was sound edited by Jen Farrow.

Music in this episode was by Blue Dot Sessions,   Sage the Hunter, When in the West and The Envelope.

Illustrations by Peta Manning. Her book, See Me Doodle, is out now.