Annie Kissack

      On the Ward No place to put a man and hope he’ll stay together. The sensible nouns are already exiting the side door. They know things are not right: that a phone charger is not a walnut, that a six-bed ward is not a graveyard. Poor sort of...

Simon Ravenscroft

      Mr F (of Supple Mind) Blessed are the weak of mind for they shall have the appearance of answers and be troubled only when they encounter people with contrary answers and yet not really troubled for although they may become angry it is evident...

Rachel Curzon

      Rite Maud Gonne’s grief at the death of her son led her to attempt to conceive another in the child’s tomb. Mausoleum. She puts her tongue against the word. Thinks maudlin. Thinks museum. Thinks her Georges, as darling as a Degas bronze, his...

Abu Ibrahim

      When young boys go missing When young boys go missing, the neighbourhood rallies a search party. We panic like a bomb’s ticking against time. Our fears, ripen to a burst, we scamper through streets, cells & prisons holding tightly to the hem...

Debs Buchan

      Fuel For The Fire Tish Murtha. Photographer 1956 – 2013 She never ran away or tried to escape that unholy beginning She wasn’t one to cry when she was beaten Tish was always coming home home with its broken bricks and scrap fires always the smell...

Rebecca Brown

      Up She Rises   Hooray and up she rises early in the morning She’s grateful to be alive with these tumours crackling in her bones Coaxes arthritic legs to take the first steps of the day There’s weight in her chest as she leans into the bin and...