medusozoa, neuropathic pain in kalimantan, a lake so inland in exile that jellyfish there have no sense of sting; divers swim at ease, brushing legs against ghosts. evolving out of our sense of poisoning tentacles is possibility; breathe this. the world is dying, yet holds both my enduring corpus and animals whose limbs have wept … Continue reading Two poems by Khairani Barokka
Author: And Other Poems
‘Changing Room’ by Rebecca Parfitt
At the photo-automat, I exchanged 24 selves for 24 frames. It started with a beret, then sunglasses, then I thought, what-the-hell, and started shedding. At the Saigon Street cafe I sat on someone else’s table and peeled the skin off a summer roll. Inside an abandoned margarine factory in Kreuzberg I pondered the face of … Continue reading ‘Changing Room’ by Rebecca Parfitt
Two Poems by Marc Brightside
Still Wait for 2 a.m. and count to three. Listen for the waveform pulse, a dripping tap, bodies curdling metallic juices. Take a shot. Imagine thunder, jazzmen pounding, horseshoes running into drum kits, every ripple flicking beads away from skin. Wait until it slows. Allow the image to kaleidoscope: steam trains chugging, ancient metronomes, … Continue reading Two Poems by Marc Brightside
Two poems by Romalyn Ante
Destined On their last holiday, they sat on a reed mat laid with local delicacies: a bowl of somtam, a plate of tilapia, cups of khaw, mud-dark, fish-pickle sauce, and a basket of freshly-picked greens from his auntie’s garden. This is how we roll in the province, no need for table or chairs. No need … Continue reading Two poems by Romalyn Ante
‘The One in Which…’ by Marvin Thompson
The One in Which… 2. The one in which I contemplate The Handmaid’s Tale TV series whilst exiting the cinema’s Art Deco doors In pick-n-mix dispensers, fudge shines like the 30-year-old scar on my knee. To reach an anthology with Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Anansi, I tiptoed on a wooden box and wobbled. My slip was bloody. … Continue reading ‘The One in Which…’ by Marvin Thompson
Two poems by Ben Bransfield
Dorothy Gale The weather man loves clouds and has wanted to be cirrus since he could coil the garden hose without a hand from his mother. Worried by his hours at their barometer, she’d cook her son a storm from tins, give him the lion’s share to munch for brain and heart. Faggots and mash. … Continue reading Two poems by Ben Bransfield
Two poems by Cynthia Miller
The last hour on the flight deck Shirt too tight, a splotch of mustard (Hokkein noodles? egg salad?) from lunch eaten somewhere over the Arctic, steady heartbeat of lights blinking circadian rhythms. Already his body is waking up when it shouldn’t be, sun pulling at him from the other side of the world. Tray tables … Continue reading Two poems by Cynthia Miller
The Barbecue (Royal Wedding, 1981) by Paul Stephenson
Mum was mincing steak when it started with Dad’s panicked shouts. She darted out onto the lawn, freshly Flymoed, to see flames dancing, him charging across the about-to-be- christened patio like a bull in a wipeclean plastic apron of a busty bikinied woman, his legs zig-zagging, his beard ablaze, soon tangled up in bunting. The … Continue reading The Barbecue (Royal Wedding, 1981) by Paul Stephenson
‘On the lifeside’ by Sepideh Jodeyri
A poem by Sepideh Jodeyri, translated to English by Fereshteh Vaziri Nasab On the lifeside He had a shapely smell, Cruel shapes And stranger-biting eyes It seemed that he craved for my heart I poured sugar for him on the lifeside He ate and didn’t eat The lifeside is huge and high On the lifeside … Continue reading ‘On the lifeside’ by Sepideh Jodeyri
Two poems by Polly Atkin
Imaging We can’t say for certain how long it had been there before we found it, masked by the hulk of the wardrobe, our own poor perception, its creeping rapidity, the weak radiation of winter light – its circular messages breaching the paper that glossed its scribblings over so many blinkered moons. It lived in … Continue reading Two poems by Polly Atkin
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