by Helen Ivory | Nov 3, 2022 | Featured, Poetry
Essential Worker Queen of the sandwich bar she moves no financial indices, wears blue overalls without red braces. She has planned every movement, her rapid questions in optimum order ‘eat in?’ ‘flora on your roll?’ ‘jalapenos?’ ‘salad with...
by Helen Ivory | Nov 2, 2022 | Featured, Poetry
Beware the silent child (4) The arcade is a belly of echoes, jingles glancing off games and slot machines, repeat repeat repeat, punters’ voices a murmur that dies on the carpet. You enter to spend a penny, then retrace your steps to the exit,...
by Chloe Elliott | Oct 31, 2022 | Featured, Poetry
Beside Everything, in Paris The morning was warmer than the one before, with a blue demitasse lighting your hand up in front of Notre Dame, its steam disappearing like its insides. And the gold flush of my shoulder against your cheek. We held our mouths for...
by Chloe Elliott | Oct 30, 2022 | Featured, Poetry
Fish at the quarry I usually hide Fish in my stomach, let it flip away angrily in the acid, or else I stuff it in my pocket, where it gets all woolly and dry, and goes still. Today, I take Fish to the quarry, let it stew in me as I gaze out over...
by Chloe Elliott | Oct 29, 2022 | Featured, Poetry
The Pea-Sheller of Crab Street She’d be out there all hours, half past three, two minutes to midnight, shelling peas on the front doorstep, always impeccably scrubbed. The pop of the shuck and the plip of the peas as they dropped into the chipped...
by Chloe Elliott | Oct 28, 2022 | Featured, Poetry
Picking Them Up at the Hospital My daughter, son-in-law struggle to strap their newborn into the car seat pulling the seat belt across, under and back, tying a knot, trying again. My daughter chastises her attentive husband who...