by Helen Ivory | Dec 31, 2014 | 12 days 2014
December Time of water light. Air and earth light spread so thin and dirty, washes of fishscales autumn skeletons fill the sky and fade. This the sad time. Parents worry their pockets children dredge dreams for real smiles gifted this one day of...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 30, 2014 | 12 days 2014
The Influenza Carol A wreath at every advent calendar door, no room to rest the oxen in my head: I’m fasting to rebuild my stomach floor, and celebrate my crawling out of bed. The spruce is green until the needles drop, its fairy and its lights...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 29, 2014 | 12 days 2014
With Persimmon Little things catch in my throat at Christmas: noticing more cracked mugs, the concrete corner of our kitchen which is still unlinoed; the matchsticks that still prop white tiles. At the table, I lose tally of our daily...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 28, 2014 | 12 days 2014
Submission Instead of a short poem a sonnet say or a villanelle I’m writing a very long one perhaps about Christmas perhaps not forged out of iron words and irony and when I send it to you Helen it will arrive not by email but stashed on a big...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 27, 2014 | 12 days 2014
Unlucky numbers On the first day of X-mas a kid-gang brought to me a mirror printed with the reflection of supermarket special offers, half-price happiness. I scrubbed at that mirror till my arm ached. On the second day the sun played...
