Churchyard Maybe this wind knows something we don’t, daddy; a secret it hugs close and won’t share as it blows across the village churchyard and the vicar firms the edge of the freshly dug hole with her wellington boot, opens the labelled canister and tips you in. It’s the plastic Evian bottle that throws … Continue reading ‘Churchyard’ by Sue Hubbard
Tag: Salt Publishing
‘Sugar is people too’ by Adham Smart
Sugar is people too The thief is in my mouth again; he knows how to pick his marks. As I hear his footsteps on my tongue I become a hummingbird-heart of hot-fingered delight, I want him to visit me nights and rob me senseless. Even when I’m having sex I’m thinking about white crystals yawning … Continue reading ‘Sugar is people too’ by Adham Smart
A poem by Chrissie Gittins
Registrar She writes in pale blue indelible across the ruled page – place of birth, cause of death. In time, the ink will darken to slate. Later still, the veins of her letters will fill with indigo. My father’s blood drained from his face to gather at his spine. His chilly skin, still smooth … Continue reading A poem by Chrissie Gittins
A poem by Isobel Dixon
Kudu Watch Signs bloom mysterious, loom sudden, briefly luminous, moonflowers edged in red. Our lights create the road, its unremitting dashes are a pale Morse code, monotonous, as I count the kilometres mesmerised. Keep watch, still far to go. We are taking it slow tonight, this lonely stretch notorious for lulling the unwary to … Continue reading A poem by Isobel Dixon
‘Love and the Body’ by John Siddique
Love and the Body and all there is, is love and the body, nothing to give but this moment, and this moment and this moment, and all there has ever been is you and I so easily lost in the feelings, the reaching, and all there is, is love and the body. All these faces … Continue reading ‘Love and the Body’ by John Siddique
A poem by Julie Maclean
U plain every night when spring gets going we sit outside in fold-up chairs, yours ripped from being left out in the weather, mine hanging in by a thread you watch dragon flies like micro choppers on some reconnaissance or other I admire the sass of lily buds baby maggies teetering on the brink … Continue reading A poem by Julie Maclean
Two poems by John McCullough
Lichen It prefers untended places, drab corners where it arrives like a boon. Kerbs, slag heaps, skewed gravestones— the roofs of council estates it spots with yellow coins dropped from the sky. Soundless and rootless, it ventures small claims, its chintzy blooms opening on concrete as though it were love itself, giddy and bountiful, … Continue reading Two poems by John McCullough
‘Leather-Bound Road’ by Luke Kennard
Leather-Bound Road Should anybody ask me how we met I’ll read them Ansel Adams on photography and say it’s in the way the artist brings out of the landscape what the frame brings out of the painting. Which is to say you bring out the best in me, but not the way the Maillard … Continue reading ‘Leather-Bound Road’ by Luke Kennard
‘Communion’ by Kaddy Benyon
Communion You looked like a scuffed child-bride of Christ, a ghost in broderie anglaise, a new bangle on your play-bruised wrist, your nan’s crucifix stuck to the jam stain on your chest. It was hot as you posed for photos: boys pinching; girls hissing their secret wounds. What you remember is not the thorn-shaped burn … Continue reading ‘Communion’ by Kaddy Benyon
‘Hunting Elmer Fudd’ by Angela Readman
Hunting Elmer Fudd I loaded both barrels like slotting light behind an eye, and I put on a deerstalker to hunt Elmer; it was time. Frosty tongues, grass asked no questions. Inklings of snow swept a mess of footprints leading to the woods. All around me deer moved the trees. Antlers hung sky from a … Continue reading ‘Hunting Elmer Fudd’ by Angela Readman
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