Scold for Chris She put his tongue in a mousetrap once, without the cheese. It wriggled a bit, and the vowels vanished. They were stacking shelves, and he’d been delving into the pockets of his past for an hour and a half, no pause. ‘Will you shut up shop?’ she asked, a bit … Continue reading A poem by Bill Greenwell
Author: And Other Poems
‘Hunting Elmer Fudd’ by Angela Readman
Hunting Elmer Fudd I loaded both barrels like slotting light behind an eye, and I put on a deerstalker to hunt Elmer; it was time. Frosty tongues, grass asked no questions. Inklings of snow swept a mess of footprints leading to the woods. All around me deer moved the trees. Antlers hung sky from a … Continue reading ‘Hunting Elmer Fudd’ by Angela Readman
A poem by Michelle McGrane
Things that a Bond Girl should never leave home without A double entendre, a steady gun-arm, a failproof recipe for Béarnaise sauce, a kick-ass lipstick, 'Five of a Kind'. Contortionist training, a reservation at Maxim's, a magnum of Taittinger Blanc de Brut 1943 and twenty Morland Specials. A stolen copy of Hogan's Power Golf, … Continue reading A poem by Michelle McGrane
A poem by Anthony Wilson
Borderline for and after Lawrence Sail the sump-life of the place - Seamus Heaney These are the flatlands stitched between flood-plain and ditch, everything provisional, ooze and sluice. The estuary looks walkable, spines of red clay rising from slate water with flanks of weeping slip which shimmer mother-of-pearl, silver, molten. A … Continue reading A poem by Anthony Wilson
A poem by Sarah James
The Un-Niceness of Nice Caved four weeks into the hills with her, her son, his woman, beans barely boiled, steak sizzled, skins singed; juiced red like the sun. I scooped dust from melons, swept flesh from floors, rectangled beds, while the sun shook off the sweet shade of trees; rained insects and figs. One … Continue reading A poem by Sarah James
‘Embrace of the Electric Eel’ by Pascale Petit
Embrace of the Electric Eel For thirty-five years, Father, you were a numb-fish, I couldn’t quite remember what it felt like that last time you hugged me when I was eight, just before you went away. But when you summon me to your stagnant pool, Dad, Papa, whatever I should call the creature that you … Continue reading ‘Embrace of the Electric Eel’ by Pascale Petit
‘Hunger’ by George Szirtes
Hunger I have made my piece with hunger. It’s a flea behind my ear. I scratch it on demand. I am all soft landings, quizzical windings, but hunger is what winds in me. I watch it, sharp as that beam of light stuck fast in the glass. It seems to point to a speck … Continue reading ‘Hunger’ by George Szirtes
‘Memento Mori’ by Isabel Rogers
Memento Mori I have taken to scarring lovers to mark my passing as a prisoner will gouge his cell wall for each stolen day. By this I can forestall some jejune meeting where they, glass-eyed and barely flinching even as they feel the blade, forget to lift their feet over the lies. They do not … Continue reading ‘Memento Mori’ by Isabel Rogers
‘First Contact’ by Hugh Dunkerley
First Contact I Through a haze of ultrasound we make you out, little amphibian curled in your amniotic pool. You’re still a long way off, still trying to conjure limbs, kidneys, a central nervous system, still wrestling with your DNA, the fishtail that loops you back into the Devonian. On the monitor the nurse picks … Continue reading ‘First Contact’ by Hugh Dunkerley
‘Tasting Note for Grief #17’ by Karen McCarthy Woolf
Tasting Note for Grief #17 after Do Ho Suh’s Staircase 3 Long and complex on the palate rage attacks the tastebuds, a territorial robin whose wings coruscate the epiglottis, insidious as rust in a cut. Her jaw has started to clamp. Remembering is a port wine stain. Similes are useless on this red staircase that … Continue reading ‘Tasting Note for Grief #17’ by Karen McCarthy Woolf
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