Tiger in the National Gallery after Henri Rousseau’s “Surprised!” Why surprised? – I’m everywhere: I’m tapestry and marquetry, and Paris hothouse fantasy. I am pelt and roar beneath a rich man’s silk-shod feet, I shoulder-shrug a wealthy woman’s back, clotheshorses catwalk me; glass cases keep me cool and pristine, poems fete me, legends spin me, … Continue reading ‘Tiger in the National Gallery’ by Susan Utting
Category: Poetry
Two Poems by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
Potholes Every village has them. Some appear overnight and none of them have spray-painted signs or battered warning triangles next to them. Though their ambitions are shallow, some potholes leave openings wide enough to swallow you. You try to ignore them, but they pull you in and though at first you call out, your … Continue reading Two Poems by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
‘Paper Face’ by Greg Gilbert
Paper Face (a Sculptural Wish for the Hands) This led to this led to this led to this I’d grown afraid of the pains in my body So turned away, lost alignment With bone, sun & prayer With insect feet That saxophone the skin And the smell of mint leaves Rubbed between fingers Became a … Continue reading ‘Paper Face’ by Greg Gilbert
‘Graduation’ by Warda Yassin
Graduation As home dinners kids, we were there when you become a wizard in your maroon cloak. Our primary only a few feet across from the halfway house. Four milk toothed daughters yoyoing off arms. Was Zakariya born then? A cap fringed in gold. It’s hard to be sure what was real. Maybe you … Continue reading ‘Graduation’ by Warda Yassin
‘Teaching Tabitha to Knit’ by Carole Bromley
See, I haven’t done this for years. Take one knitting needle in each hand. No, hold it nearer the end, that’s it. Now wind the yarn round that one. Hang on, I’ll give you a hand. OK, now kind of make a loop, see? Try tucking one needle under your arm. In over through … Continue reading ‘Teaching Tabitha to Knit’ by Carole Bromley
Two Poems by Richard Price
Personality test with worked examples Are you made of dogs fogs or cogs? Son: dogs. Father: fogs. … Continue reading Two Poems by Richard Price
‘The Very End of Old Delph Will’ by Jean Atkin
All Saddleworth was plagued by boggarts in those days. Such beings stumbled by like woolsacks. And they were wide as a lane and their eyes were blazing dinner plates and they were constantly likely to emit hot winds. The country people are frightened to death said Ammon Wrigley, folklorist. Or they were, until that … Continue reading ‘The Very End of Old Delph Will’ by Jean Atkin
‘Catastrophe’ by Rowena Knight
We heard the heart-stopping leonine groan during our morning tea-break. As Christine checked Google News the windows smithereened and Ginger Nuts hammered the office, knocking off desks and cracking screens. An infinity of biscuits poured through hallways, blocking entrances and fire exits. The receptionist’s desk was lost to an avalanche of NICE biscuits, the … Continue reading ‘Catastrophe’ by Rowena Knight
‘Villanelle to all my Wasted Flesh’ by Jane Burn
This bed a purse of flame and I, a hot coin thrown to its tawny lickings lie, het suckle-pig, skin lachrymose with rendered tears, beast burned to its bone – I have squirmed my own grease on the sheet’s thirsty pone. I paid for my dreams, blazed a cruel ascension in this bed … Continue reading ‘Villanelle to all my Wasted Flesh’ by Jane Burn
‘Mercy’ by Kathy Pimlott
I dream forgetfully, retain just a suggestion of something thwarted. My husband dreams of murder, all hands-on: noose, bludgeon, knives. He’s under orders to kill, demurs, he says, in vain. This is a man who dispatches prolapsed chickens, mice, once a muntjac fawn half-garrotted on a wire fence, a man who salts ox tongue, … Continue reading ‘Mercy’ by Kathy Pimlott
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