Rose Petal Jelly The apples drip slow as September dabbing sun to the rain, juice slips over the glazed lip of a jug. Outside, a resilience of roses hold in the wind. We feel petals open, jagged caruncles in the corners of our eyes. One nod and I shin a fence, grab a second flush … Continue reading ‘Rose Petal Jelly’ by Angela Readman
Category: Poetry
‘Ode to a Flat Earth’ by NJ Hynes
I’m bored by infinity. I want to sail a long time, paint my gums with lemon, sharpen my teeth on hard tack, slip over salted sheets of water, slide across mats of emerald algae, reach the edge of the earth’s table top and stop – to admire the thousand pounding waterfalls and the mouldy … Continue reading ‘Ode to a Flat Earth’ by NJ Hynes
Two poems by Tess Barry
White Girl’s Sonnet for Barack Obama I come from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Donegal, from Croatia, from Mont Saint Michel, from Troy Hill, from a long line of immigrants, from steel mills, racists and bigots, from the city of bridges, the Mon and Yough rivers, from egalitarian blowhards, from an infant left in a … Continue reading Two poems by Tess Barry
‘The Counterplayer Gazes In and Lives to Play the Tale’ by Dzifa Benson
What is the meaning of Legba’s red baritone saxophone in the Five Spot Café at midnight? On the cliff face of this wet indigo, he is the man who tied water. A trumpet sounds: the prince is in a hurry to dance in the street. Sometimes it sounds like the boom of the earth stretching … Continue reading ‘The Counterplayer Gazes In and Lives to Play the Tale’ by Dzifa Benson
‘The Kaleidoscope My Big Brother Gave Me’ by Ann Leahy
The Kaleidoscope My Big Brother Gave Me It created geometric processions out of rooms: made a pair of butterflies rise from a fireside chair, caused a ball of wool to fan and become a guelder-rose, a cylinder of gas to spoke into a four-pronged star, eight eyes to glisten from a hot-plate ringed with chrome. … Continue reading ‘The Kaleidoscope My Big Brother Gave Me’ by Ann Leahy
‘Aquarius’ by Miranda Peake
All day we lived with the thought of you, celeriac remoulade and Boeuf Bourguignon covered our plates as we lifted two glasses of sun and toasted your name. Later we wandered down Tottenham Court Road, stopping for love seats and dining room chairs. We sat on sofas and questioned the depth of shelves. We … Continue reading ‘Aquarius’ by Miranda Peake
‘His Heart’ by Raymond Antrobus
His Heart turned against him in a chicken shop. He said my heart is falling out as he slipped into dreams of his mother in Jamaica. He came through in hospital, longing for the woman, dead twenty years. His son visits and they spend half an hour holding hands. There is a needle in his … Continue reading ‘His Heart’ by Raymond Antrobus
‘The remembering business’ by Rishi Dastidar
The remembering business Today a truth was decided, | | Like marching ghosts, we rip seven centuries ago, that | | pages out of ourselves to tell you bread and wine could be | … Continue reading ‘The remembering business’ by Rishi Dastidar
‘Chasing Rainbows’ by Jill Abram
Chasing Rainbows I am trekking in the arid centre where willy willies lift terracotta dust onto my skin to stick by sweat kilned by sun until I am claybound I used to get stuck in … Continue reading ‘Chasing Rainbows’ by Jill Abram
‘The Tale of Wilbur’s Victorian Sewage Pumps’ by Anita Pati
The Tale of Wilbur’s Victorian Sewage Pumps The two-barrelled Prince Consort engine designed by a colonel named St John, was fantasised fondly in Hitchin. Colonel St John had pondered how sewage, to fuel one onward, like money, should never be squandered. Conceived over parlour-time Horlicks, cream-splashed Imperial promise twirled ostrich eggs, rare hot-house relics. And … Continue reading ‘The Tale of Wilbur’s Victorian Sewage Pumps’ by Anita Pati
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