by Helen Ivory | Jul 26, 2023 | Featured, Prose
The Holding The mute manager at the call centre where the operators sell lies sees a woman on Talbot Street sleeping on her tiptoes. She is arabesque, alert. He tells her all about the missold PPI, how she reminds him of the music box heroine from...
by Helen Ivory | Jul 25, 2023 | Featured, Poetry
The Anniversary Every February I remember. I have it marked in my diary and sometimes I take annual leave but that’s not to say I don’t remember at other times – like when a song comes on or I’m buying magazines in the Co op and I’m back in...
by Helen Ivory | Jul 24, 2023 | Featured, Poetry
The single woman’s toolbox It began with a claw hammer, for removing lingering doubt and to bludgeon home the point that Yes, I know my own mind and No is my final answer. I don’t need to ask a friend. The pliers came soon after, along with the...
by Helen Ivory | Jul 21, 2023 | Featured, Poetry
When the Saints Came We waited for them to heal us. Took them gifts of honey, a rabbit-skin bag. Showed them how to till and plant crops with foresight. How to sweeten bitter leaves by boiling. We helped them quarry rock, carve the blocks, stack them fit...
by Helen Ivory | Jul 20, 2023 | Featured, Poetry
A Chapel in the Woods There is a chapel in the woods. We should have been married there. The vines and the growth overcoming the building Except for the doors that would open to welcome us. There is a cabin in the woods. We should have lived there...
