Pedicurist Textbook arches to calloused toes gnarled as root ginger come my way - scholar of the lotus foot, the hennaed sole - to be soaked in basins of salted water. Pumiced, clipped; anointed with lavender or bergamot. My head bowed low to my work. A connoisseur; hands awake to each detail. Come bedtime, … Continue reading Three poems by Stephen Bone
Author: And Other Poems
A poem by Angela France
The Visit Brown is the colour of waiting; a wainscot in a dingy room, straight-backed chairs against the wall, tweed coats on old women whose felt hats nod in approval and tilt towards each other. They lean together to whisper lineage, connections; which daughter, whose son, what cousin is parent to the child who … Continue reading A poem by Angela France
Federico García Lorca – Ian Duhig – Carlos López Beltrán & Pedro Serrano
Federico García Lorca Gacela del Niño Muerto Todas las tardes en Granada, todas las tardes se muere un niño. Todas las tardes el agua se sienta a conversar con sus amigos. Los muertos llevan alas de musgo. El viento nublado y el viento limpio son dos faisanes que vuelan por las torres y el día … Continue reading Federico García Lorca – Ian Duhig – Carlos López Beltrán & Pedro Serrano
‘Red Rose City’ by Rosie Breese
Red Rose City Red bricks, blushing redder at sunset. Red as flesh held tight. Not rock, but pressed roses. We lean close and smell the sun fermenting inside each brick. This is how summers have grown to house us. * They say the light held within these bricks is older than … Continue reading ‘Red Rose City’ by Rosie Breese
‘Plotkin’s cat’ by Colin Will
Plotkin's cat The neighbour’s cat gave birth under our bed. As good a place as any, we thought, in the old empty suitcase father brought home after the war. Four black-and-white smudged kittens wriggled blindly in a smell of birth. We wanted to pet them, my brother and I, and I remember a hand, his … Continue reading ‘Plotkin’s cat’ by Colin Will
Two poems by Nick Makoha
Stone The best thing I did was move my body from one side of the world to the other. This required a visa which required a bribe. The bribe placed in the palm of a man with a gun, took my mother’s monthly wage packet. The man with a gun let you speak to … Continue reading Two poems by Nick Makoha
Two poems by Mark Robinson
Primary The trees at school talked to themselves while I held firm and fierce at right back. The dinner hall looked just like it smelt – off white, peeling, corrugated like the cardboard lining my grow-into shoes. A queue of children holding chairs two feet off the ground snaked past. Then a sudden burning … Continue reading Two poems by Mark Robinson
Two poems by Rowyda Amin
Desert Sunflowers While they waited for the weather to turn, Fermi offered wagers on the odds of igniting the atmosphere and destroying the earth or just New Mexico. Teller made them nervous, slapping on the sunscreen. Oppenheimer wore dark glasses like the rest and held onto a post with damp hands. He had ten dollars … Continue reading Two poems by Rowyda Amin
A poem by Bill Doan
Despite Contact Despite contact no bond was made from the heat of your beer soured breath as you whispered a threat no one else could hear Despite contact no bond was made by the grip of your muscular hands on my cotton pajamas as you yank me from sleep pajamas tearing from my body … Continue reading A poem by Bill Doan
A poem by Jill Sharp
Jam doughnut Saturdays I cycle to the bakery where, behind the shop, the floury men bake and banter. I serve in my cap and apron their warm loaves and melting cakes to a quiet queue of ladies, who smile as they fill their bags and snap their purses. D’you know how we … Continue reading A poem by Jill Sharp
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