ONCE by Catherine Gander

ONCE by Catherine Gander

ONCE sunlight splashed like wine across our table where you knelt at work on crayon glyphs announcing your creations two by two Spiral! Spiral! Words turning to songbirds in your mouth dancing helix to my ear one sparrow then a second lifting in defiance of the arrow...

Carolyn Oulton

      Vaccination Day At the surgery my mother doesn’t want to wait in the car, keeps opening the door. It’s deadly out there, and all I can think is she’s going to say Yoohoo! It’s Mrs … yoohoo! No one is actually warm enough. Mr Poole never does turn...

Carla Scarano D’Antonio

    A safe den When my girlfriends come we delineate our territories. I build a fence with a cradle, two chairs and a stool, a cut-out space that protects and defines against trespassing. Knitted blankets cover my baby dolls, rags are my curtains. I arrange...

Nora Blascsok

    Something Boy, I see you, turn up day after day, crouch by the pond, assortment of snacks, hold out a hand or stand still as air. Trackies, oversized tee, slowly scattering feed, pigeons land on shoulders that carry the world, there’s room for a thing...

Lucia Sellars

      moment Once upon a teacup, I woke up. The eyelids yawned and reality percolated down. This is not how rain starts, this is not how the world keeps on its axis. I had a hat to cover my sinful thoughts, and a mouth, to zip them in. My hands...