by Helen Ivory | Mar 12, 2024 | Featured, Prose
Pleasing Evelyn Battersby Evelyn Battersby was a difficult woman to please, an easy one to disappoint. When her children brought their gifts on silver salvers she would sniff, wrinkle her nose, send them back to the kitchen. The paintings of...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 11, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
If you’re asking how to get invited If you’re asking how to get invited To draw at a sex club It’s fair to say You’ll never get invited to draw at a sex club But here’s a tip: try to board a bus, Get sandwiched in the closing doors Because the driver hasn’t...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 10, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
After learning about the maternal instincts of seals, I took to listing postpartum offensives a hen pecks a king cobra a wildebeest confronts a cheetah five lions are attacked by a ballistic giraffe a monitor lizard suffers a wild pig bite a...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 9, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
Nowhere to run to What was he running from? Well what have you got: the blood-soaked news of course, theme parks, leaf blowers, HR, but also the language that had somehow begun to seem more violent, more violently banal, more unfit for purpose...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 8, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
Queen Conch My spirit animal is a sovereign sea snail. A part-time anchoress, anchored to her cell. Mindful custodian of the tender parts. Chapel of the heart, where fragility is treasured. I distil to flesh and shell. A starfish clambers aboard...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 7, 2024 | Featured, Prose
Licensing Applications received at the Local Council for Permission for Community Events Henry leafed through the applications on his desk, sighed, picking up the first one. * Application no. 56/438/b Activity/Description: Cheese rolling. A large...
