If anyone here can talk to the dead, please tell my Dad the news of his daughters that would bring him the most peace. Tell him of the dreams we made real, and the grandchildren who laugh in his image. Tell him we miss him and we know he always loved us. List … Continue reading Séance by Zoe Mitchell
Author: And Other Poems
Two poems by Jessica Mookherjee
The Liar I never believed in Father Christmas as I crawled out of the chimney, soot-stained, ingrained dust in the whorls of my skin. I never feared the dark, crawled under my bed, talking to dust, moulding it into imaginary friends. We sang together to the soil. Suspicious of prayers to invisible gods, I stared … Continue reading Two poems by Jessica Mookherjee
‘Hazel’ by Aled Thomas
Hazel Swedish and new and steel it would take his thumb as keenly and cleanly as the shoots off the hazel canes he’s shaving and stacking against the wall. The wound would be the same, for a bit - the colour of cream and smooth as an ice cube on a zinc bar. The other … Continue reading ‘Hazel’ by Aled Thomas
‘Rose Petal Jelly’ by Angela Readman
Rose Petal Jelly The apples drip slow as September dabbing sun to the rain, juice slips over the glazed lip of a jug. Outside, a resilience of roses hold in the wind. We feel petals open, jagged caruncles in the corners of our eyes. One nod and I shin a fence, grab a second flush … Continue reading ‘Rose Petal Jelly’ by Angela Readman
Two poems by Tess Barry
White Girl’s Sonnet for Barack Obama I come from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Donegal, from Croatia, from Mont Saint Michel, from Troy Hill, from a long line of immigrants, from steel mills, racists and bigots, from the city of bridges, the Mon and Yough rivers, from egalitarian blowhards, from an infant left in a … Continue reading Two poems by Tess Barry
‘The Kaleidoscope My Big Brother Gave Me’ by Ann Leahy
The Kaleidoscope My Big Brother Gave Me It created geometric processions out of rooms: made a pair of butterflies rise from a fireside chair, caused a ball of wool to fan and become a guelder-rose, a cylinder of gas to spoke into a four-pronged star, eight eyes to glisten from a hot-plate ringed with chrome. … Continue reading ‘The Kaleidoscope My Big Brother Gave Me’ by Ann Leahy
‘His Heart’ by Raymond Antrobus
His Heart turned against him in a chicken shop. He said my heart is falling out as he slipped into dreams of his mother in Jamaica. He came through in hospital, longing for the woman, dead twenty years. His son visits and they spend half an hour holding hands. There is a needle in his … Continue reading ‘His Heart’ by Raymond Antrobus
‘The remembering business’ by Rishi Dastidar
The remembering business Today a truth was decided, | | Like marching ghosts, we rip seven centuries ago, that | | pages out of ourselves to tell you bread and wine could be | … Continue reading ‘The remembering business’ by Rishi Dastidar
‘Chasing Rainbows’ by Jill Abram
Chasing Rainbows I am trekking in the arid centre where willy willies lift terracotta dust onto my skin to stick by sweat kilned by sun until I am claybound I used to get stuck in … Continue reading ‘Chasing Rainbows’ by Jill Abram
‘The Tale of Wilbur’s Victorian Sewage Pumps’ by Anita Pati
The Tale of Wilbur’s Victorian Sewage Pumps The two-barrelled Prince Consort engine designed by a colonel named St John, was fantasised fondly in Hitchin. Colonel St John had pondered how sewage, to fuel one onward, like money, should never be squandered. Conceived over parlour-time Horlicks, cream-splashed Imperial promise twirled ostrich eggs, rare hot-house relics. And … Continue reading ‘The Tale of Wilbur’s Victorian Sewage Pumps’ by Anita Pati