by Helen Ivory | May 11, 2024 | Featured, Prose
Dragons get their smoke from the poke man There are few sounds sadder than the plinky-plonk of Greensleeves from a passing ice cream van. Mickey Mouse’s face plastered on its arse, rainwater rivulets streaking down his grimy cheeks. Processing...
by Helen Ivory | May 10, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
Acts of Repair Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? (Tupac Shakur) You wouldn’t believe how quick they grew — Our babies were men now. Lifting bags of concrete they rebuilt cities, slab by slab, reinforcing cracks....
by Helen Ivory | May 9, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
The Scorpion and the Egg I’d asked for this not to be recorded; this failure on my part, to be a good parent; this failure over the egg, my handing him a scorpion instead, my thoughtlessness. How can I explain that my mind was elsewhere?...
by Helen Ivory | May 8, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
Monkey Mathematics A monkey grabs one nut here, one nut there, and two more over there. He counts them with care. One two three four nuts —what a bounty! He rubs his belly, opens the nutshells deli- cately and eats the seeds oh-so- slowly: four...
by Helen Ivory | May 7, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
Self-Portrait at 30 – VIII. Be reasonable I find six errors in the proofreading manual & the irony doesn’t tickle me. I am enraged by typos, poor formatting, missing commas. This is my Big Girl Job, the one I always wanted — editing...
by Helen Ivory | May 6, 2024 | Featured, Poetry
Consulting the Doctor What seems to be the problem ? He asks in that slightly condescending tone. Seems, I think, Seems. It seems, I say, that I have a problem with my inner fish, or my inner fish has a problem with me. My Eustachian...
