by Helen Ivory | Dec 20, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Nicolas Flamel and the Parisian Housewives The grocer calls, ‘Madame?’, sees what her eyes tell him, what sorcery her order implies: a palimpsest in the marbling of the ham, a skeleton of magic inside the roast lamb. He slices his goods on a...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 19, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Cola and Kvass Napoleon was here, the tour guide says. Distant forests shine copper and gold; the churchyards have plastic bouquets on each grave; a skinhead in combats gets off a bus, holding a bag from Lidl. We are crossing the European Plain, we read...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 18, 2018 | 2018 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
Aqua Alta It started as often before: water, creeping through doors, pushed in by wind and tide, flooded the lower floors. Venetians, grimly stoic, waded to work as dawn broke cold and yellow; waded through ruined books, shoes and baby clothes, or...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 17, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Face Shades with The Moon It came to me as a vision out from the winter cold, to my belief I find it to be real. On a night with the moon pale as the river dipped in silver ink. Before is the forest bared to soot and ash reek numb and loneliness,...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 16, 2018 | Prose & Poetry
Sunday I. In shade is cold. I face the railway bank. Each fresh wet blade of lawn is trimmed. Birdsong, a distant plane and muffled train Augment the silence. Topmost limbs Of the tallest oaks and sycamores are lit. Coffee drifts from the...
by Helen Ivory | Dec 15, 2018 | 2018 poetry picks, Prose & Poetry
Divorce for Dummies Our divorce was a collection of digestive biscuit meetings, the formalities of splitting our elaborate throw cushion collection, who would have the kids – a pair of ugly goat mugs neither of us wanted but neither of us would...
