Fiona Heatlie

  Planet Nine You talk to me intently of black holes. I slip my hand into yours, unnoticed. You are absorbed in thoughts astronomical. I am stealing time. Swallowed by a constellation of brighter stars and suddenly you are on the cusp of the cusp of a place where...

Hongwei Bao

    Night Market   When the night curtain falls, the crowd start to assemble as if drawn by magnets, as if answering a scared call. Neon lights go up along the narrow pavements, illuminating the concentrating faces of food-sellers. Under boiling noodle...

Michael Shann

      Ambresbury Banks Early March, after weeks of rain: between a young oak’s leggy roots, a cushion of dun, desiccated leaves. Shadows of other trees all point towards me like the black lances in Uccello’s Battle of San Romano. I sip hot coffee from...

Darren Deeks

      Burglaries You have been burgled. While you were out with the dog, a burglar made best use of that yawning kitchen keyhole to spook through tracelessly. They were a ghost, floating through your house, with all the time in the world to inventory...

Rachel Lewis

      Cemetery A pity the door is locked. You have to climb in over the fence, which is low in places. A large cemetery, matzevot crushed by falling trees – Tripadvisor review I step through missing bricks. Green graves cluster on a rise under a...

Kexin Huang

      Woof Woof She came growling at me like a wolf, muttering moonlight out of her throat and blood is the future in my skin. No more good girl. She kept moving in her frightened threats, unstable pain swallowed in an unspeakable way. Like me with my...