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
Category: Poetry
‘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
Two Poems by Joanna Ingham
Mother as a list of locations The path in the park where I said just stop crying, just stop it, JUST STOP IT as I pushed you over the ruts. The slope above the cathedral where I shoved you off my lap so hard you rolled away across the grass. The playground where I … Continue reading Two Poems by Joanna Ingham
‘Oxytocin’ by Betty Doyle
It’s like nobody has ever done the dishes together before – on a Wednesday, with all the kitchen lights on and the moon huge, lemon-yellow. The quiet clatter of china meeting in the sink. The low hum of the fridge as its motor clicks in. I love these sounds, their taking place in the … Continue reading ‘Oxytocin’ by Betty Doyle
Two Poems by Karen Leeder
Tell-Tale we wake to sunlight in the curtains singing in another room. streets away there’s someone knocking at a door, bringing help, of that we’re sure, or the instruments of grief. but all we see is this: this sliver of glass that tells our slippages, our shifts. the inadvertent millimetres that we are adrift. … Continue reading Two Poems by Karen Leeder
Two Poems by Pat Edwards
The Gathering They will assemble in the parliament of the wide awake, gather in the forest clearing. Folding back bed sheets, slipping on clothes from the back of the chair, they will unlock their doors, step out into the early hours’ chill. The speaker will call the meeting to order, invite members to say … Continue reading Two Poems by Pat Edwards
Two poems by Mark Granier
Elephant Place The elephant housed in a wooden shed on Essex Street. The elephant that belonged to a Mr Wilkins. The elephant that in the early hours of Friday 17th of June, 1681, went up, with its tiny house, in flames. The elephant that you could come and look at: something extraordinary, a walking boulder, … Continue reading Two poems by Mark Granier
Two poems by Chrissy Banks
At Castle Neroche Along by the birches, into the pine forestthe dog going doolally to be free, rounding up the children,minding his flock in that leafy sphere. It was as if we’d packed all our conflicts into a boatand floated them off somewhere, so we could be here,close in the quiet woods. Snowdrops, pine cones … Continue reading Two poems by Chrissy Banks
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