Swimming Lessons Hard as stone, Mexico City I measure you in cruise liners far from the sea and hands wider than the whole of Northumberland grasping at clanking locks, the cats in bin liners are lost in their own little world – warm and burly the night light sea, I swear they dance and what … Continue reading Two poems by Jack Little
Author: And Other Poems
Two poems by Jasmine Donahaye
Our Sad Captain or: Liam Cunningham’s Middle-aged Ladies Admirers Club It’s the parti-coloured beard that does us in, renders us tender and credulous – a man we’d go to in a crisis because he’d look down, frowning with concern from his six foot one (yes, we’ve each checked the online movie database). Alright, … Continue reading Two poems by Jasmine Donahaye
Two poems by Stuart Mckenzie
Earplugs Some mornings I wake up, find them pressed into my hair, dangling like two small clumps of snow on the ears of a cocker spaniel. I’d like to ask him upstairs as he enters his flat, to please switch off your gristly cough and mute your feet. I know silence, I held it in … Continue reading Two poems by Stuart Mckenzie
‘Prodigals’: Four sonnets by Martin Malone
Prodigals Friday Night: 9:30 The cancelled train of last week’s lost high now behind us, we ease deep into chairs, each snugging the glove of shared hunger. Our deferred pleasure in escape declares itself open for business with a glass of good wine and a glance that reads my returning gaze. We let minutes pass … Continue reading ‘Prodigals’: Four sonnets by Martin Malone
‘Tracking the wolf’ by Wendy Klein
Tracking the wolf after Cormac McCarthy the boy his brother their father (not yet awake) the horse the dog behind the gate watching him go the she-wolf the snow the blood the gun the traps … Continue reading ‘Tracking the wolf’ by Wendy Klein
Three poems by Patrick Deeley
Precursor Tetrapod hardly covers it, old boy or girl coming out of the sea. Tetrapod, four-foot, accurate but basic as the mud in my mind’s eye you’re treading. Amphibian then, since you take a fresh element, the shelf of land, cumbersomely on, all to do in your warty green skin. Newt might fit, or giant … Continue reading Three poems by Patrick Deeley
Two poems by Natalya Anderson
Dinner Party Father Clarke and Father Dempsey are wearing matching hats. I’m on door duty. I pat Kitters through a dark gap to the basement so he doesn’t rub his mouth on people’s legs. He scratches; his paw shakes the bottom corner of the door until he bursts through. Reverend Pollock is here – she’s … Continue reading Two poems by Natalya Anderson
‘Afterthought’ by Marie Naughton
Afterthought And what if –– go on, you’ve seen those films –– what if on one particular January morning this man no, this boy, what if, when this boy approaches the main road and reaches in his pocket for his phone he remembers fuckit, the fiver to cover the cost of his DaySaver still on … Continue reading ‘Afterthought’ by Marie Naughton
Two poems by Mary Noonan
The Moths The artist is sitting, perfectly still, by his mulberry tree, watching it. He has been in that pose all day. The white moths have flown through my open window, drawn by the light of a bedside lamp. They are everywhere – cloaking the walls, sleeping in the folds of sheets, crawling over the … Continue reading Two poems by Mary Noonan
Two poems by Jo Bell
Kith A word made scant by frequent use. I like it for its urgency and spit, for its necessity. I like it for its oldness, for its slingshot certainty. I like it for its plainness; for belonging to the Northern tongue behind my teeth. I like it for its fighting talk. The known. The tribe. … Continue reading Two poems by Jo Bell
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