Please Do Not Touch the Walrus or Sit on the Iceberg Horniman Museum, Summer 2019 So, I clamber up, on top of the fibreglass plinth, rise from the chevrons of the parquet floor as though it melted into thick-cold waves and I emerge, triumphant and substantial, hear my epic … Continue reading ‘Please Do Not Touch the Walrus or Sit on the Iceberg’ by Caleb Parkin
Tag: Nine Arches Press
Two Poems by Jessica Mookherjee
Mother Tongue after Laforgue I dreamed I lived in a palace with billowing sheets, pages, moon empty, I asked if this was real. I searched each vacant room with tears and panic, in the corner the moon sat with her sad face saying I was talking nonsense. She said be careful those books can … Continue reading Two Poems by Jessica Mookherjee
from ‘One Hundred Lockdown Sonnets’ by Jacqueline Saphra
XLI 2nd May 'Death Map. Interactive coronavirus map lets you find out number of deaths in your postcode.' The Sun And suddenly it's fear. He wakes me up at odd hours, pulls me out of bed, he works by stealth, he spikes my morning cup with dark. I drink him like a drug, I … Continue reading from ‘One Hundred Lockdown Sonnets’ by Jacqueline Saphra
‘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
Two poems by Julia Webb
Radio Nights I slide down deep beneath the covers output may be subject to further interruptions on the subject of snow turn dials by torchlight prop the heavy radio knobs for eyes, large square battery for heart on bent knees the nylon sheet crackles with static imagine Luxembourg as a party shape at the far … Continue reading Two poems by Julia Webb
Three poems by Tom Sastry
Normalisation It’s like the old days; a fortnight’s needs in tins under the stairs. The crisis, like the weather is changeable. Some days the shops are full, the power constant. Some days the streets are calm. The news is still earnest nothings, outrage, sport and gossip. They haven’t yet asked for your passwords. The leaves … Continue reading Three poems by Tom Sastry
Three poems by Suzannah Evans
Three poems from Near Future Summer with Robobees Those long evenings they giddied in the warm wealth of the oilseed rapefields humidity sensors estimating approaching storms * We picnicked on the lawn in July – shuttlecocks pinged distantly our scones and jam unbothered by the robobees their algorithms danced them between marigolds * Sometimes they … Continue reading Three poems by Suzannah Evans
Three poems by Roy McFarlane
Conversation Nina Simone playing in the background of a Café. Rasta: Write it bloody and true, write the Passion of Black, write the psalms of a people, write the jazz, write the gospels, write it plain, write the protest songs from cover to cover. Illuminate the pages with love. Writer: How do you write about … Continue reading Three poems by Roy McFarlane
Two poems by Richie McCaffery
Two poems from Passport, Nine Arches Press Double Dutch i. In Catholic Belgium, the norm is to have a crucifix hanging in every classroom. Ours is broken and lies in bits. It looks like a gun someone has been ordered to surrender. No one mentions it. I’m the one person in my class not fleeing … Continue reading Two poems by Richie McCaffery
Two poems by Robert Peake
Letter to the Last Megafauna My friends, you wouldn’t like it here, moss squelching underfoot, lean drizzle tickling your rivulets, bare trees. We’d give you names like Babar, Dumbo, Topsy, then shackle your legs for safety (ours), parade you in a car for entertainment (ours). Everywhere we go (archaeology shows) the giants disappear – save … Continue reading Two poems by Robert Peake
andotherpoems.com 