Exposition du Système du Monde My daughter’s blah-blah babbles coalesce into proto-words, “hiyas” and “mamas” condensing from the nebular static, planetesimals amongst the diffuse molecular cloud sucked inwards over what must seem to her millions of years by gravity towards a centre round which – as if she were acting out Laplace’s equations … Continue reading ‘Exposition du Système du Monde’ by Jonathan Taylor
Author: And Other Poems
‘Wood On The Downs’ by Martin Malone
Wood On The Downs After Paul Nash We have been here before. Uffington, Hackpen, Grim’s Ditch, Ogbourne St.George, Wayland’s Smithy, Sparshott Firs, Bishopstone and Barbury; all the trodden way from Overton to Beacon Hill. Each place its genius loci, a favourite colour: Ash-Blue, Ochre, Payne’s Grey, Terra-Verte, Lamp Black, Sienna. But today you ditch … Continue reading ‘Wood On The Downs’ by Martin Malone
‘Crates’ by Jo Bell
Observe that when I speak of crates your mind provides one straight away. Likely you are thinking of the fruiterer’s crate: a shallow slatted box of rain-matted pine, the archetype of apples stencilled on the side, a cartouche slot above it for a grocer’s hand. Your crate may be the sturdy plastic tub of … Continue reading ‘Crates’ by Jo Bell
A poem by Robin Houghton
Container In the first floor apartment movers swarmed, big hands, my childhood piano shifted by their grunts, prints lifted from walls, everywhere the sound of paper, rolling and wrapping small items, I glanced away from fridge magnets, swaddled in their shrouds, laid out like ‘pass the parcel’ games, ready to pack. My cupboards were … Continue reading A poem by Robin Houghton
‘Child’ by Marion McCready
Child The field has drowned and turned into a tideless sea. Flower shapes rise from a toddler’s broken ribs. Beyond the head of a loch a broken swing hangs from a tree. His body bruises in the dark, he has learned to be quiet. Clouds drag their shadows over hills, ridges, fields of sheep. … Continue reading ‘Child’ by Marion McCready
A poem by Siegfried Baber
The Law of the Playground We've all done it: crossed our hearts, hoped to die, and asked for needles in our eyes if what we were saying turned out to be a pack of lies. And here you are, standing in the dock accused of arson: fingerprints on a jerry-can, a book of matches, … Continue reading A poem by Siegfried Baber
A poem by Tom Wiggins
Bookshop A friend once said, 'You won't find a girl with a sounder mind than in a bookshop.' So I started at G, leafing through books and drawing some sense from the space that they left. It may have been restlessness that took me to M via "L" so soon, but I paced the … Continue reading A poem by Tom Wiggins
‘On loving a dragon’ by Don Share
On loving a dragon For one thing, dragons can’t cook: they burn everything. And they sigh— a lot! Try and rub a dragon’s back: it will not assuage them one bit. Above all, dragons love to be disagreeable: they deign to disagree. Their breath is better than one might think; it doesn’t stink, though it … Continue reading ‘On loving a dragon’ by Don Share
‘Instant Karma’ by Roy Marshall
Instant Karma The office cleaner sings beautifully and in Hindi. I ask her what her song means. 'The Lord says, I will give you what you want, when the time is right.' She leaves a world bright with belief, the mopped floor under my feet, the emptied bin of me. (from Gopagilla, first published … Continue reading ‘Instant Karma’ by Roy Marshall
A poem by Chrissie Gittins
Registrar She writes in pale blue indelible across the ruled page – place of birth, cause of death. In time, the ink will darken to slate. Later still, the veins of her letters will fill with indigo. My father’s blood drained from his face to gather at his spine. His chilly skin, still smooth … Continue reading A poem by Chrissie Gittins
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