Ship’s Desk I could have been flung overboard with smoke floats, not detained at port without explanation. I imagine the bottom of the ocean, the torment of tentacles tugging on my nestled drawers while plankton swish through keyholes. On solid ground, there’s not the comforting creak of the ship’s bowels but they found me a … Continue reading ‘Ship’s Desk’ by Sarah Sibley
Author: And Other Poems
Two poems by Louisa Adjoa Parker
Yellow Sheets Afterwards, I swaddle you in plastic sheets; yellow and crumpled as an old raincoat, they will protect you from the rain. Today is the first and last day. I will not look at your face, tiny and still-pink, I know it will accuse me. But I see your little fingers, cold and stiff … Continue reading Two poems by Louisa Adjoa Parker
Four poems by David Tait
Talisman I don’t need an amulet around my neck, don’t need a jade bracelet upon my wrist, a twist of string, blessed around my shin. I don’t need onions or jasmine above my door, don’t need to live on the eighth floor of this apartment complex, could take the fourth bed on any … Continue reading Four poems by David Tait
Two poems by Pam Thompson
Her Grown-Up Dress When she came at last to that row of shops on the long road, having left behind the dirt track, railway-line, the sluggish brook and had fastened round gold slides in her mud brown hair, pulled plimsolls on her feet so the backs weren’t squashed she found the shops were boarded up, … Continue reading Two poems by Pam Thompson
‘February’ by Tim Dooley
We walked back and forth from the library, preparing for some high leap: sunlight catching the tallest spume of the shopping centre fountain. Something we owe to the past made our elders stand, kneel and then sit in buildings warmed by a hope for something better. That monogrammed leather trunk we use to … Continue reading ‘February’ by Tim Dooley
‘Six Perspectives on Lilian Kjærulff’ by Lisa Kelly
Six Perspectives on Lilian Kjærulff 2 April 1934 - 17 July 2010 i second daughter from second marriage I know why you married so young. You curtsied to him, offered your gloved hand with your girlish good manners, straight off the Esbjerg boat. Your signature move: that dip. You were a tall girl; your … Continue reading ‘Six Perspectives on Lilian Kjærulff’ by Lisa Kelly
‘Ship-breaking’ by Hannah Lowe
Ship-breaking These folks were not the victims of migration…these folks mean to survive – Stuart Hall I watch old films of ship yards on the Clyde: cranes ripping ships apart, their metal hides peeled back by men in goggles wielding fire. The shock of innards: girders, joists and wires, a rusted funnel toppling in slow … Continue reading ‘Ship-breaking’ by Hannah Lowe
Two poems by Peter Daniels
Regulars Tonight we go through to the small back room hung with wrestling posters, plastic vegetables and salami. It's cosy here, warm at least, away from the street. Nearer the kitchen, source of heat, food and argument; nearer the toilets. Catch a lime-scented disinfectant that sanctifies the smell of drains. Up there on a ceiling … Continue reading Two poems by Peter Daniels
Two poems by Emily Blewitt
This Is Not a Rescue I want to tell you it will not be as you expect. For years you have hammered in stakes, handed men the rope and said consume me with fire. Most have run – one does not burn a witch lightly. This one is water. He’ll unbind you, take … Continue reading Two poems by Emily Blewitt
Two poems by Aki Schilz
The Fall I have clasped your edges so hard they leave grooves in my palms, deep as the grooves of horse-reins beneath the bridges on towpaths wasted with bracken and buddleia. These, and mine, cut across lifelines: a geometric interruption. * I cannot document dropping you on a sunlit day, startled by the … Continue reading Two poems by Aki Schilz
