Jason Ryberg 

      Still Life of Fish and Bird One day a fish swam away and the river ran dry, and the lone bird, sitting in a tree, flew off and took the whole sky with it.   Jason Ryberg lives part-time in Kansas City, MO with a rooster named Little Red and a...

Mark McDonnell

      First Funeral Fascinated by the priest’s teeth I don’t realise I’m kicking the pew in front with a restless foot until someone taps me sharply on the knee. I’m near the coffin on its trestles and a plaster Jesus whose wounds shed drops of hard...

James Mason

      Beginner’s Italian In Italian I have no inner life. With no past or future tense My needs are immediate. I have hunger. I eat. I have thirst. I drink. I have the name for wine not peas.   The heat is good. I want. Yes, I sleep well, thank...

Claire Miller

      I sit on the grass and listen to the earth purring   rose is thirsty rose senses water rose root rummages in the earth rose root punctures lung and frontal lobe rose stem is a green straw sucking rose stem sways like a tail rose thorn is a...

Sylvia Banham

      Pigeon Politics   Pigeons have invaded the garden, two then four, then a flock. They roost in the apple tree to nest, reconnoitre or mate ignore my sorties to deter them and shit without stint on patio and herb bed, foul lovely hyssop and...

Daniel Naawenkangua Abukuri

      Glory of the Blacker Berry Today. Let us forget the blunt-edged sorrows. Remember the black joys, my darker brother— the high laughter of women, the bright, unbothered stride of boys. We have died more times than the days have names, yet here is...