Colin Crewdson

      Meeting the family, 1937 These are sunny days. They sit arranged around the teacups, teapot centre, cakes to eat in this glade of leaves and glitter; she wants her fairy-friends to show up but her visitor’s here, laughing with her brothers. Her...

Dan MacIsaac

    Catbird   Dumtella carolinensis   Gray pretender samples beats   from spring peepers and circus jays.   Coy poacher salts its song   with crow ratchets and blackbird rasps.   Droll plagiarist cribs calls   from silken oriole and...

Ben Banyard

  How you’ll describe me to your grandchildren I like to make you laugh, but worry that’s not the substance fathers are made of. Tell them I was funny, then, if you like, but don’t be afraid to say that I shouted sometimes. Remember that the times you said I was...

Ian Heffernan

        Vernon Square They’ve posed themselves in favoured spots Around this dour, abortive square That sits beside the King’s Cross Road: An innocence of London drunks. One stammers helplessly in sleep Then coughs and gurks; one makes to sing, His...

Santino Prinzi

  When Stranded on an Iceberg When stranded on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, do not squint while the sun screams at you. Remember that somewhere it is raining, that there’s a tempest swirling, a tsunami rising. Even though your clothes are wet, stand up...