For every if, an else, a then. For every cursor, a loop that ends. Each open bracket must be closed; so single quotes must come in pairs and double quotes—ditto. Her joy is found in datasets, in structured queries and parsed syntax. Wild cards flourish within her fields, while table by table she builds … Continue reading ‘The Data Quality Analyst’s Lot’ by Hilaire
Author: And Other Poems
‘The Red Shoes’ by Joanne Key
The Red Shoes (for Karen) Dead on my feet, I watched those shoes flounce through the churchyard, dance on your grave, all vamp and platform. Flashes of red infected the corner of my eye as they tiptoed over my face. As I tried to sleep, I heard them clacking away the early hours like drunks … Continue reading ‘The Red Shoes’ by Joanne Key
‘The songs’ by Choman Hardi
The songs These are the songs which were played in the background of our days in the taxis and shops in every house we set foot in. These are the songs that suddenly disappeared from our lives or we disappeared from them when we left our homeland behind. We carried them in our … Continue reading ‘The songs’ by Choman Hardi
‘Miracle’ by Stephanie Norgate
In supermarkets, strapped in a trolley, on the motorway, belted in the back of a car, under the foundered houses, open mouthed and fed by drips, in a box drilled with holes, in the hold of a boat, in fish crates and on cardboard, on pallets and straw, on a bed of needles on … Continue reading ‘Miracle’ by Stephanie Norgate
Two poems by Sohini Basak
They have more to say Mud on their mandibles the wasps are carrying around my anger — expensive black limiting the gold. I am chewing paper, processing letters claiming that put in the wrong compartment these part bee part ant creatures of summer can bring down aeroplanes. The wasps take earth to air … Continue reading Two poems by Sohini Basak
Two poems by James Goodman
The Great He who arrives to a fan of turning in the most exquisitely peopled room, a train of rodents and gulls in tow, will magnetise coincidence, entrap the future, may leave his mark in stone – he lolls through all the solid facts, building with them empires of agreement. Or he whose name became … Continue reading Two poems by James Goodman
Two poems by Richie McCaffery
The white horse I was born to curses, my hooves headed the wrong way and I know I will die to the sound of blessings the way I was broken with both. So many once believed in me, they all backed me. I was worthy of their faith because I never arrived or ever proved … Continue reading Two poems by Richie McCaffery
‘Eleven days’ by Natalie Shaw
Eleven days I was on Wikipedia looking for something and I found eleven missing days, imagine. I spent a couple as a man in his early thirties. I had a convertible, I wore sunglasses. I parked wherever I wanted. I had fun like people in adverts have fun, Lynx for example. Then I went back … Continue reading ‘Eleven days’ by Natalie Shaw
‘On Laundry Day’ by Florence Lenaers
On Laundry Day on laundry day check the pockets, question them, make them tell you what they know. (for the washing machine won’t hear of it.) slip your hand inside—careful, don’t fall head over heels. eel-catch-catch a folded candy wrapper; looks familiar, doesn’t it? like an ear, dried & pressed in a blank book for … Continue reading ‘On Laundry Day’ by Florence Lenaers
‘Helgafell’ by Tony Williams
Helgafell There is a quarry in my heart. The lovely lanes divide. One humps from Upperwood to Uppertown and Ember Lane, and Ember Farm (my family’s farm, which has not been our farm for fifty years). At Bonsall’s market cross the clot of stone sends tassels out towards the Barley Mow, the moor, and down … Continue reading ‘Helgafell’ by Tony Williams
