Susan Darlington

      Promised a Hedgehog, We Wait in Your Garden Our bodies hinge into smallness, my back pressed into the shelter. Street voices fade, radios are muted, we count house lights twinkle out one by one. On the edge of sleep it comes snuffling through leaf...

Dechen Shaw

      Blown Away The Victorian spinning wheel at the top of the stairs was carved in South Wales around the time this house was built. Somewhere in the carpenter’s breath was a flicker of the blue I chose for the walls when I stripped them to go with...

Andrew Cannon

      Abreast Wait, I’m talking. It’s my turn. Be patient. It takes me a while. I have to work it out. I will keep it short. You see I’ve lived a while, learnt a few things, for example clichés are true but not always. Listen to your...

Bel  Wallace

      Trespasses Forgive me The E flat on your baby grand (not quite in tune). This same finger in the crack that goes clean through the bungalow’s supporting wall. Then flicking dust from the fringed edge of your floral lampshade. Noticing that they...

Arlette Manasseh

      Seventy-one Things Paulie Should Know Farewell to the mountains, high-cover’d with snow, Farewell to the straths and green valleys below; Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods, Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods. My...