John Doyle

    When It Rains and No-One Else is Around I mimic that previous moon, whose drowning was little more than murk-filled puddles and longwave radio crawling up walls – in wheezing lines of French; I remember mornings after, of exploding skulls and...

Simon Cockle

  Father The child is the father of the man’- William Wordsworth In the beginning, you laughed at everything. You rubbed your heels together to make blood soak the blankets in the cot.  Dreaming of milk and cats, you pissed in arcs and woke up, wet. Then,...

Daniel Fitzpatrick

    Great-Granddaughter When I arrived you called me John, Katie’s John, I guess, mixed up with me in the background meadow of memory. I sat Therese on your mattress but cradled her away when her babble started flicking at your lids, her blindness shining...

Amy Ekins-Coward

  Fisherdad i dropped knees into oil, scum that lined the pier, called out, voice sore as cut-glass salt, tongue a quivering just-caught flounder – baltic, brassic, coin scales worthless u spat into sea, delved for a wet wink, masked a tear in need of blinking...

Helen Freeman

      Nesting Doll Plump procreant ground down until bland enough to empty, to bear, clammed in her place. Cleaved into wood, black core, arms fist-grip twist her in two, smiling, “I did.”     Helen Freeman published Broken post-accident in...