Patrick Deeley

      The Speed of the Earth He sees a stainless-steel spoon burned off at the base, a bunch of wild flowers dropped, a builder’s padded glove plastered flat, a car slumped in black ashes and glass. He imagines his classmates singing out the bargain...
Jessamine O’Connor

Jessamine O’Connor

    Nerve Music Sometimes I’m jittery like this        jittering nervousness appears as a tremor from somewhere distant     far away     inside and I’m on edge but maybe on edge       is advantageous where things happen the best location for seeing each peak...

Eliot North

      Homunculus Explaining to my little man about proportion, he responds with feeling: a picture of daddy with thousands of fingers. Sensory and motor cortex guiding the felt-tip pen, big tongue lolling as he draws. A little man with huge hands,...

Jeanette Burton

      What is this, a family outing? Yes, dad, that’s exactly what this is, I want to say to him as I open the car door, climb into the front seat, remembering those marvellous trips to the tip at Loscoe. My brother, aged nine, threading himself through...

Carole Bromley

      The Last Person on Earth I don’t know why I went, I’d already heard about the time a colleague’s husband turned up at the staff barbecue and punched him. We met at The Prince of Wales but he refused to go in because a sixth former was working at...

Lisa Falshaw

      A mother teaches her Neurodiverse child colours What colour is the dog? The dog is brown. Can you see the brown dog? What colour is the cat? The cat is black. Can you see the black cat? What colour is the school? The school is too-bright primary...