Eyewitness Travel In Shepherds Bush library, now an annex of Westfield, a man in a corner seat leans over two Dorling Kindersley books —Eyewitness Travel—and with near-complete, near-sighted reverence (the kind you’d give to something rare or precious) turns and scans each glossy page. I’m trying to believe it’s for a trip he’s planning, but … Continue reading Two poems by Will Harris
Month: June 2017
Three poems by Jodie Hollander
The Metronome She set the metronome ticking, her children the pendulum, rocking back and forth from Mother to Father, Father back to Mother. Then she’d twist the knob to Father-Mother, Mother-Father, or call out Allegro!, and they’d speed up: FatherMother, MotherFather, FatherMother. Her children walked sideways, their eyes shifted horizontally, they looked dizzy, even possessed—missing … Continue reading Three poems by Jodie Hollander
Two poems by Jennifer Lee Tsai
Breathing after Song Dong Tiananmen Square, New Year’s Eve, sub-zero temperatures; he lies face-down, breathing gently for forty minutes while from a distance, Mao observes a few policemen on night watch and the lamp-posts fitted with video cameras. This is the gate of Heavenly Peace. Soon, a patch of frost thaws, just to freeze over … Continue reading Two poems by Jennifer Lee Tsai
‘Praise Be to Unexpected Ways’ by Chaucer Cameron
Praise Be to Unexpected Ways after Sepideh Jodeyri I have breasts, which I love, I can speak the word breast, I can write the word breast, I can associate the breast with a robin on a branch. I love birds, I love the way they sing, and how they capture territory in unexpected ways. Praise … Continue reading ‘Praise Be to Unexpected Ways’ by Chaucer Cameron
‘High Society’ by Ian Humphreys
Inside the camphorwood chest – forgotten treasure: a pair of leather cowboy boots with metal toe caps. How they shone. As loud, proud and polished as the men they sparked a trail through. Three decades of dust can’t hide the cracks. A genie-rub conjures up swirls of dry ice, the wink of the glitter ball, … Continue reading ‘High Society’ by Ian Humphreys
Three poems by Joel M. Toledo
Ruin And before the end comes, the complete corrosion of all things beautiful, what calls us back to dust and the fine delicate things under rocks, the solemn quarters of the dead, or the believing children who simply cannot resist looking at the sun, curious about the circle behind the wide glare presiding over the … Continue reading Three poems by Joel M. Toledo
Two poems by Momtaza Mehri
Bars Bars Bars how it was is half the fun. half the story. the grit underneath nails. the last bit of meat left on the bone. a clinging of years. yaa the years. softening like plastic. hoarded in narrowing closets in the coldest of spare rooms. mothball mama. all the how it could have beens. … Continue reading Two poems by Momtaza Mehri
Two poems by Nancy Campbell
Sonnet Fatigue Six months on, I don’t know when you were born nor what you’ve been writing, though you tell me when you’ve been writing. I’ve been writing sonnets again, but this once fail-safe form dismays me now. A/B/B/A/: I forge the chain – or force it. The closing couplet seems too slight to hold … Continue reading Two poems by Nancy Campbell
‘The Outing’ by Yomi Sode
Onlookers witnessed your wrath that night how your fist rose to the heavens, striking down as if Ṣango[1] lived within you. Thirty going on thirty-one. I wasn’t sure what to say. I’ve never been here. The papers described him as tall. They said his neck broke before he landed as if his body was a … Continue reading ‘The Outing’ by Yomi Sode