Ruth Aylett

      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...

B. Anne Adriaens

      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,...

Olivia Heggarty

  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...

Elizabeth Gibson

      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...

Hilary Hares

      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...

Owen Lewis

      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...