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      Waterlogged In the tight clench of hormone-drunk years the shape of skin and skeleton just sinks your flooded self, all bogged with life’s full stops and every-day disaster. And so it seems the house is porous – our bricks that promised...

      Pause a crow much wet by rain falling in massive subtractions almost a dark shadow perched on a wire with washings beak dripping words now halted by fatigues of itineraries neck subdued by water’s weight feathers drizzling alone looked straight...

        Such a Victorian The bird that flutters reaches out Into time; knee-deep in nerve gas, At the cemetery gates, the children play Like half-opened flowers on a breeze; but, Deep in the coffers beneath that layer of non- Sense all along the...

      Diagnosis I make lists for her, fill in the calendar, get her to keep a diary. She’s knitting again, a scarf to start with, reading now too - hides her romances amongst the bedsheets in the linen basket. She stumbles, says, Doris when she means...

      i don't need to puncture my body or stain my face or pour bleach on my scalp to feel beautiful.     kelsey blacklight (@slntstrwbrry) is a writer from the USA. They have appeared in wingless dreamer and enjoy guacamole, live music, and...

      Sari shop, Easton A step through a doorway An overnight ‘plane journey A month’s ship voyage Easton to Lahore By pushing open a door. A woman closer to death than birth Lies swaddled in the corner Atop a pile of rainbow-plush rugs Princess and the...

    Bridges They push forward, vibrating in their ecstatic skirmish, voices unified over gang choruses, clenched fists raised toward the ceiling. They might glimpse us, on the cusp stage lights’ sweep, hidden like old toys. We’ll be softly nodding our heads...

    THINGS I REGRET. A professor. My love. Another professor. Her caste. Two countries. Not sure which one. Not eating on time. Not doing sprints. The girl in the street I broke a wind chimer of. Hotel rooms. Not raising voice. Vaccines but unrecognised....

    i collect items left behind by ex-boyfriends as if they are souvenirs i count myself lucky and hold my breath in the shower to practice peace on days that feel like a blister i know somewhere children are laughing and you are folding your favourite pair...

      Kleptomaniac  Lover, all my life I've been lightfingered to the nth degree finagling what wasn't mine, some rings and lipstick, once a dress her sun-drained hair, a hidden glance two books I loved yet never read family heirlooms, happiness (all...

    THE CHILD BECOMES A PARENT She comes bearing gifts and apologies Giving love out of guilt From my days as an embryo, I knew her Whispers in my phone past bedtime Climbing through the window past curfews Teenage angst and my insecurity shows 'I hate you,...

      Lifesaving practice We make a strange creature, him and I. Father and son, endlessly enacting death and resurrection in the local pool. Locked in an awkward embrace, my back forever to his front. My heart balancing on his heart; smooth wet pebble...

    morphine the first time i drank morphine a weight slid over my heart   & the whole summer collapsed under me   my head packed with ice phone overflowing with garbled texts   & all because of this vertebra   a firecracker in a...

      Out nights were forest with foliage too dense to let in the light of moon and stars – and days were savannah   prairie   steppe – glory and danger in strangeness of mountain and sea and river – survival was tracking the flock to the watering hole...

      A Talkative Saint who lived in a hedge He was caught up in what he did and he couldn’t do enough of it and he did it all the time. He would talk about it to anyone even if they told him they couldn’t understand a word of it and didn’t want to...

      I’m crying in a bar when a wise old cowboy turns to me and says If you found love now, you’d run it right into the ground. I bet you sit around swallowing up everybody else’s light, wondering why you never end up being anything but midnight. I...

      The unloved pipes It’s not rats (there are no rats); it’s the goddam plumbing cobbled together by some inept predecessor. Knocking whenever the heating comes on, clanging whenever the shower’s turned on, clicking whenever hot water rushes through...

      Lockdown Release Suddenly summer. Parakeets whirled above, too fast for more than a glimpse of jade green glitter, an after-echo of cries Flowers leaned on walls, bright lips breathed fragrant calls the insects answered, wings a glinting blur,...