He'd like the creature cocooned in his chest
to stop turning over - to burst from his mouth

on unspeakable wings. He'd like to say something
that she'd understand, but can't pin it down.

                                                          from 'Lepidopterist'

Bugs are the insects we live alongside, necessary and unsettling; they're the fears, the ailments and spies that keep us wide awake at night. The stories in Antony Dunn's third collection range from the microscopic lives of parasitic worms to the lives of the planets themselves. We go from the miniature world of the flea circus to the invisible pervasiveness of electronic surveillance. In an uneasy world, Dunn's characters face down their terrors and find in science, in faith, in love, the courage to go on.

Now heartening, now heartbroken, Bugs turns a magnifying glass on the world to reveal its fascinating strangeness.

Contents

Bugged
Flea Circus
Kitchen Sink Drama
Antimony Cup
Why Did the Chicken
We apologise for the delay
Us All
Please
Berlin Zoo
Lisdoonvarna
Ladybird
First Kiss
Maria
Ants
New Year Instant Poem
Skinny Dipping
Limequat
Lepidopterist
Flight
Testing One Two
Platform Announcements
Cold
Unsaid
Saguaro
Nettle Bed
Green
Love Poetry
Hungarian Blessing
Three Dartmoor Ponies
Tarn How
Red
Mayfly Sums Up
Peace on Earth
Eyeglass
Ichneumon Wasp
Pope Boniface’s Address
Connecticut Bees
June the Fourth
Bread Line
Girl with Gun, Ben Gurion Airport
Phantoms
Taking the Night Air
Ultraviolet
Alarm
Mosquitoes
Riding Lights
Nematode Worms