Niall M Oliver

      The Unholy Spirit If Jesus was the type to enjoy a drink,  then the porcelain version pinned at our front door would surely be happier than he looks Beneath his feet, a round finger bowl, eternally brimming with holy water. Never a dry-dip in this...
Word & Image from Jane Salmons

Word & Image from Jane Salmons

  Black Coffee and Cigarettes Close to the leaf a black raven In nature what would happen normally is that dogs chase cats Of course the zebra looks to the sky They were naming them after household objects:  the telephone, the aspidistra, the cuckoo clock They...

Vote for your August 2020 Pick of the Month

It’s Pick of the Month time and the shortlist for August 2020 has a definite family feel about it. Are you drawn to either John Grey or Sam Hickford as they try to make connections in ‘To a Father I Never Knew’ and ‘Familiar Tissue’, or...

Claire Aster

      Red wine fruit flies You came for the pear molasses on my kitchen shelf three tummies full of fruity goodness recklessly rolling around in this deep lagoon without any thought of how you might get out.     Claire Aster has always been a...

David Belcher

      Ask to know your people better When my father goes to Edinburgh, the hilly streets and crowds of tourists make him grouchy. This is his mother’s country. She is not there, he cannot touch the things she touched but he sees and hears what made the...

Robert Hirschfield

      Cheating At Cards She slaps down her three shadows on the table and runs off with my shadow.     Robert Hirschfield’s poems have appeared in Salamander, Grasslimb, Noon (Japan), The Moth (Ireland), Pamplemousse and other magazines....