Warkworth
The pelt drags me across sand like a drown animal.
I walk miles, eyes fixed on Birling Carrs, a lime light
of seaweed and coal. Birds nesting in cliff face ,
a chorus stuck in a skull. I didn’t know what was here,
buried by tides. I almost missed it – a packet of pills
at nineteen, another at thirty, yet I’m here.
Salt-slapped and grit toothed, sea glass in pocket,
a blister pack of rock pools in my hand. I kneel
to the fur of pondlife, stroke dulse- a strap
bright enough to tie me to this moment alone.
The sun steals a peek of itself laid on the ground.
I sit with it a while. Lichen observing me breathe,
water and shadow a snakeskin boot on my feet.
Snippets of rock pipits popped in my mouth,
I suck an almost song and head back.
Angela Readman is a twice-shortlisted winner of the Costa Short Story Award. Her debut story collection Don’t Try This at Home was published by And Other Stories in 2015. It won The Rubery Book Prize and was shortlisted in the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She also writes poetry, and her collection The Book of Tides was published by Nine Arches in 2016. Her first novel Something Like Breathing will be published next year.
Face
who is that young women over there
half-hidden behind a mask bubbles
of saliva coating her dry lips little hairs
sprouting from her chin thinking
she’s still the person she’s meant to be
why is she stitching her skin
into neat pleats and pouches to tuck
discretely behind her ears so no one
can see her thin mouth sutured with fear
the smell of age on her like the stinking breath
of a dog the pelt between her crotch
going bald
dis-gust-ing
who would want to touch something
so dirty so broken puddle their fingers
in those dried up holes that patch of psoriasis
better turn a blind eye tell her to take off
that ridiculous disguise it’s a silly game anyway
e -m -b -a -r -a -s -I -n -g
pull back the curtain wipe up the spilt pee
show some decorum some
con-sid-er-a-tion
that’s quite enough now
Sue Hubbard is an award-winning poet, novelist and art critic. She has published 3 collections of poetry, two novels and a book of short stories. As the Poetry Society’s Public Art Poet she was responsible for London’s largest public art poem at Waterloo. Sue Hubbard’s latest novel, Rainsongs, was published in January 2018 by Duckworth.
Vicissitude
Part of me’s
one of those picturesque villages
that’s stayed the same
for strangers,
who have no interest
in nearby places
that had to change.
Tristan Moss lives in York with his partner and two young children. He has recently had poems published in The Poetry Shed, Antiphon, Snakeskin, Amaryllis, Lighten Up Online, Open Mouse, Picaroon Poetry and Algebra of Owls.
First published in Now Then (Sheffield arts and culture magazine)