Barbara O’Donnell

      Itch   Stacks of National Geographics filled the wardrobe to my waist. The dust inviting sneezes. Misaligned yellow spines. Careless visitors would toss them back any old way.   My fingers would itch to restore their rightful order. Oh...

Josep Chanzà

      Conversation   The night he was taken my father’s fingers danced like icy spiders: dab-dab-dab at his hospital gown. He talked to his drip obliged to welcome every drop to the coven of wild spirits digging their heels on his skin. The...

Chrissie Cuthbertson

      For the last time   With a mother’s practised care I grasp your greenstick frame and hoist you to your unsure feet though you would be easy to hurt.   A time will come that will be the last I perform this simple service and neither...

David Ishaya Osu

      Trance   the whole world was traveling yesterday in a big boat that couldn’t carry a star nor a grain of sugar. the whole world still couldn’t reach its room before the piano girl’s voice by midnight as of this morning when...

Josephine Corcoran

      Old Girls   In the library, we lost ourselves gazing out at traffic, yearning for stories of  adventure and flight.   Now, every night, we fly and hum, our bodies carrying the pollen of our lives: dust from cinema seats, grains of...

Gill McEvoy

      Assignation   A white moon waits for the sun to get to bed.   Inside her room a woman waits till footsteps cease along the corridors,   until the house is still, all breathing slow.   Moon creeps up the sky. She whispers to his...