Allen Seward the old and new dead pass flowers from mouth to mouth the boneyard rubs together we living ones live only for a while we trade our newspapers and cigarettes in for roses to clench in our teeth the mingling is almost a dance someone says you can see Venus in the sky tonight but no one looks you only fall for that trick once. Allen Seward is a … Continue reading flowerpetalbonemeal

            Nicholas McGaughey A town has slept in a hillside for a century. Men who left their livings for the Kaiser:butchers, teachers, a clerk of works;some two and a half hundred  stooped in feldgrau, where blue-firs have canopied the craters   and spoil that tombed them.There have been looters herebent on old coins and trench-art,on watches that looped ona week after the air expired.Deep in … Continue reading der Stollen

            Tim Love Not all infinities are equal.Cantor proved that in 1874. He went mad.All your days are impossible now,some more than others. So now you dream.It's that simple, you say, like goingin a sauna and watching yourself sweat,or bodysurfing beyond the breaking dawn,searching the horizon for the perfect wave.It's only the drugs, they say, the … Continue reading Side Effects

            Cathy Grindrod You stand on bathroom scales to weigh your feet,cry outside the carpet shop, that red square in your hand too small to fit your bedroom floor.I point out the new moon. You ask me where the old one went.You want to know where space is. I tell you, ‘Everywhere.’ ‘There must bea case round the space,’ you say.You ask … Continue reading Worlds Apart

            Sarah Gibbons To be honest, when I took the bone from his side,scraped it clean to whiten in the long daysI didn’t think it through. It was one of those timeswhen I saw the joins in everything I’d made and as for the man, he did nothing well,lapping at the rainwater that festered in a hoof print, … Continue reading The Afterthought

            Yanita Georgieva In this version we are marriedto other people. You get the classicAmerican home. Paint it a crisp white.Get into country music. Considervoting red – then reconsider. I settledown. Marry up. A man I despisebuys me watches. I sell them onlinefor a profit which I use one day to fly someplace warm and uncharacteristic. When I … Continue reading Side Quest 371

            Alice Frecknall and finally. The sky above your bed all squares and joins, white in an off way, your slack jaw spilling. Marionette of loosening  strings, you raise a finger – question or command? Conductor preparing  for the downbeat. Five days from now there will be  flowers, a carnation resting its head, and everything yellow will rust. Alice Frecknall is a writer and fine artist. … Continue reading You are dying for the third time

            Caroline Druitt The lychees grew sweeter,fleshier under their rouge prickled cases.The greengrocer, in smug blue overalls,sliced out-of-season watermelon. Rolledeach piece onto its back, side by side,their underripe meat just pinkingwhere the knife made its cut.Premature dribbles of juicepooled at the base of the tray,gathering with the seeds. Caroline Druitt is a poet and teacher in South … Continue reading She was having an abortion at the supermarket

            Alex Chernova I. Every night the stars were full of eyes    Blue figures rustled past the side of the bed, stirring the sheets just a little   I have stood atop mountains and felt the stars wrap around my head    From the summit of one mountain in Siberia, I saw a river folded like a ribbon in the valley    There … Continue reading Diptych

            Anne Caldwell We strip the fields and lanes, gather piles of wood, strawbales, rotten doors, lost chairs. It’s rained for months and the valley smoulders like a bad mood. The bonfire won’t catch light. I make a paper lantern from withies, tissue, PVA and an old tea light. Watch it rise in the dusk like … Continue reading November