<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cherry of London<\/strong><\/p>\n And if I could put myself back if I were back there now and that, one day, if I could be that child again <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jane\u00a0Lovell<\/strong> has been widely published in journals and anthologies. She won the Flambard Prize in 2015. Publications include One Tree <\/em>by\u00a0Night River Wood,\u00a0 Metastatic<\/em>\u00a0from Against the Grain Poetry Press, and\u00a0Forbidden<\/em>, a limited edition\u00a0portfolio\u00a0from\u00a0Coast to Coast to Coast.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On cold October evenings THE CLASH \u00a0 DAVID BOWIE \u00a0 NEW BOOTS AND PANTIES!! over the underpass walls smashed to a rubble of glass underfoot <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deborah Harve<\/strong>y\u2019s poems have been widely published in journals and anthologies, and broadcast on Radio 4\u2019s Poetry Please.\u00a0 Her fourth poetry collection, ‘The Shadow Factory’, will be published by Indigo Dreams in 2019. Deborah is co-director of The Leaping Word poetry consultancy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019m Not Changing my Name<\/strong><\/p>\n because it is me because I love the misspellings<\/p>\n because I will be “ambitious”, because my life began at birth<\/p>\n because I am not first a wife.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maggie Mackay<\/strong> is a jazz and whisky loving MA graduate from Manchester Metropolitan University. One of her poems is included in the award-winning #MeToo<\/em> anthology while others have been nominated for The Forward Prize, Best Single Poem and for the Pushcart Prize.Her pamphlet The Heart of the Run<\/em> is published by Picaroon Poetry.<\/p>\n
\ninto that long, dark hall of coats,
\nmy hands reaching up to stroke
\nthe untouchable suede
\nwhile you laboured in the kitchen,
\nsloshing clothes in and out of the tub,
\nwashing the pans, the windows, the floor,
\ncold and pale as soap,<\/p>\n
\nlistening for the door, knowing how
\nyour spine would curve into low flat notes
\ndrawn from a cello,
\nyour voice seep away through cracks
\nin overheard mornings,
\nknowing that your eyes would unfix
\nand soften that windswept crabapple
\nheart,<\/p>\n
\nyour beautiful untouchable suede,
\nblazoned Cherry of London,
\nwould be hanging, still perfect, in my own
\njunkshop house, unblemished by rain
\nor breath, or fingers,<\/p>\n
\nand know you now,
\nwhat would I say?<\/p>\n
\nA pint at the shifting sky<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nI look for the girls who sit on the wall
\nof the George the Sixth
\nbottles of cider to their lips
\ntwo cans of orange spray paint
\nburning a hole in the carrier bag at their feet<\/p>\n
\ngraffitied in fiery letters<\/p>\n
\nbut they\u2019ve gone and the stars are fallen<\/p>\n
\nand I\u2019d go for a pint but the king\u2019s lost his head
\nand the sign on the forecourt says
\nit\u2019s now called the shifting sky<\/p>\n
\nmy baggage, foibles, self<\/p>\n
\n“pert” and “forward”.<\/p>\n