by Helen Ivory | May 28, 2016 | Prose & Poetry
Love Often Bares its Teeth I am waiting for the number 44 bus, it is raining and my bag is full of books I have become less than keen to read; they weigh me down, prod and bump as if I carry a badly-concealed family of cats. And not for the first time....
by Helen Ivory | May 27, 2016 | Prose & Poetry
Welcome, Stranger The half dozen gray geese in our town’s central pond used to strut out on the road to attack trucks. Grills, tires. Pecking. If you honked a car horn at them, then you were speaking their language. They’d hiss and...
by Helen Ivory | May 26, 2016 | Prose & Poetry
The Wedding Picture ‘Oh, I do, I do! It fits me fine but… I can’t afford it, I’m afraid. Another time.’ Yiota told the village peddler, Mr. Giorgos, on the phone, letting out a throaty ‘Bye’. Dina was sitting at the sofa, her Geography schoolbook...
by Helen Ivory | May 25, 2016 | 2016 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
Pledge What to do? You sign it, as they all do, sign it in your childish hand, descenders and ascenders imperfectly described, a name, its capitals, its lower case presented in the ink that’s drying even as you gaze at it, drying as you think yourself...
by Helen Ivory | May 24, 2016 | Prose & Poetry
Remorse Struck by an ice-cream vendor at age nineteen! What a bumptious little prick I must have been to order a cone and then refuse to pay on grounds of cost, and in a simpering way watch as vanilla dribbled down his wrist. Without reflecting he...
by Helen Ivory | May 23, 2016 | Prose & Poetry
Leavening Forgiveness like leavening bread In the dark heart of summer. Like following the way down To where the columbine eats A bed of roses. Water knows this work: Slow moistening, the alchemy Of rubbing stones, smoothing surfaces Until they...
