Dennis Tomlinson

Passage to London   Spring has come to swing his hammer, to drive crocuses forth from the leaf-scattered soil. Look at the workmen raising their scaffolding, opening roofs where the old tiles lay. While daisies peer shyly towards a pale sun I up and depart on the...

Jennifer Cole

      My Precious Holding your cooling hand, bedside, they said I had better take your wedding ring or it might get “disappeared” its fading ghost now a mere shadow on my finger. So it hangs with mine – twin markers round my neck – chained together to...

Eithne Longstaff

      Ulster Museum  After ‘The Supper at Emmaus’ by Caravaggio On the road to Belfast today, I failed to recognise my father. I saw a flamingo by the Tamnnamore turn off, but paid little regard as it took off, legs stretched out behind like a hyphen;...

Mark O’Connor

        The Piano The last thing cleared from my Late parents’ house Was the piano. At half a tonne in weight It was like the anchor – This thing that kept us all Together; Without it, the tide came And carried us away.     Mark...

Michael Mintrom

      A Map of Old Battles They lie deep in a forest, wounds unseen, unhealed. Further back, an escarpment with dark scars. Visiting, perhaps you expected something tactile, something to hold, markers of exact terrain, key sites on paper or cowhide. Who...