Black Cane Diary

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At the top of Camden Road, where the headlights peel off from Highbury, and the buses rush down from Tottenham, at eight in the evening, after the rain…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

May 2022

It’s the best thing about it, this ability we have to bring out the good in people, how we give them the opportunity to be kind. When I came out as…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

March 2022

It was night. I think it was raining. Ahead I saw a long, low vehicle blocking my way. Flows of water slid down its armoured side. I pressed forward…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

November 2021

Near Waterloo, I stopped at a dark crossroads, unsure of the path ahead. I turned and saw two figures coming towards me. The man was my height and about…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

August 2021

The train waits, hissing. East Croydon. This is East Croydon. Eyes half-closed I look out the window and see the ruins of a castle. How? Surely not, not…
Joe Rizzo Naudi
a fantasy
Joe Rizzo Naudi

July 2020

We'll meet by the church on the corner of Goose Green, we said. It should take me twenty minutes to get there. I’ve got a good stride going, striking…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

March 2020

People avoid me when they see the cane. They cross the road as I approach, flatten themselves against railings, hide behind trees. I tap along the…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

February 2020

In the queue for a bar in a town I barely know, and this one looks like a mean bastard. Pinched face, pockmarked scalp, checking everyone’s IDs. He’s…
Joe Rizzo Naudi
On one hand, years ago, before I used a cane, I was walking down Kingsway towards the river. There was scaffolding up on Africa House, which meant a…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

January 2020

In this series, five friends imagine themselves in my shoes and write an entry for the diary. 1. After the last few months, today wasn’t such a bad day…
Joe Rizzo Naudi

December 2019

In the kitchen someone switches off the lights and sets the music front and centre, full and pumping. I lean against the cabinets near the sink and…
Joe Rizzo Naudi
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