Hello

      The Poem of the Sock after Martin Stannard The poem of the mask disguises meaning. The poem of the diet lost seven words. The poem of the snowman melted. The poem of the invisible man                   . The poem of the ventilator needs to...

      DayGlo after Ecclesiasticus 44.1 Let us now praise hi-vis men who gather together round a pothole, filling the gap with their sticky black remedy. Honour the yellow-gilet WPC who knows how to listen, called to a bus stop just in time by a lost...

      Out of Place I lie back, arch my throat, pretend to relax.  Contemplate ceiling tiles, and women who do this weekly for pleasure.  A basin strangles me. The palm of a hand realigns my head: this is how the ironing board feels when you dance with...

      It Might Never Happen This is not you, but someone soaked in fake Brut coming at me in a gesture of fake generosity. For goodness sake, I only want a quiet life, it’s no crime not to be a gregarious joiner. Ultra-polite, ultra-wary, I don’t answer...

      Bus Pass Your face was on a bus pass, your hair falling around your face like a curly straw, pressed in a puddle between the Queen's old face and an Aldi receipt for slippers and chicken. I sit at the stop we used to wait at for the bus to pick us...

      At Casa Diablo: Portland's World Infamous Vegan Strip Club I owned a g-string like this, the back connected by a rhinestone butterfly. Starved myself at school to save my dinner money, bought it from Poundland. Prized, peeping above my gym shorts...

      There’s The Big Things The ash that screams into the night, the lake that dries, the child amongst the rubble, the heat, the fire, the lack of books, the men who’ve clearly lost their minds. And then there’s the small. The glass that smashes on...

      Akademichna Street is bombed-out flats, is the hot-pink Sweet Bakery Café, is straggly new-planted trees, is infantry quaffing cappuccino, is the community hub spilling ragged donations, is fuchsia velvet armchairs, is the balcony with the...

      Neveralways —him— Never shows up late to a single thing he’s invited to Always brings the most thoughtful and carefully curated and perfect gift Never shows up early and never once overstays his welcome Always appears well groomed and clean and...

      The Fallen Angel This is just a woman, sticking her life back together after years spent recovering. But the sky blackens, everything grows dark and minor. Unasked for, he appears again. What instruments does the demon use? Metal spoons on...

      Hive   What you are – bodied light, a store of oil a hive of warm blood chemicals flooding a brain, calculating a furnace filament of awareness in a palpating dark a treeless dark a stone-edged dark coal river dark. Flesh and its impermanence....

      End of a World In the back of the taxi on my way to the hospital,  thighs clenched together, the driver asked me,  You visiting someone there?  Yes, I said. I am visiting a friend. When I get there, I will tell my friend that I was watching The...

      Object M16- The Pillars of Creation He who created all things, and bears up the pillars of creation, hath now become so weak, that He must be carried by a woman! - Charles Spurgeon * Here — in the absolute zero of space — fireworks! Look how the...

      After, We unlearn how it felt to touch And resume our separate days in shirts and trousers, Like hazmats against the sun and its longing, The moon with its underbelly pulls.   On the pillow I turn away from you,  Burn sage to ward off the memory. ...

      Lightly a god, if he wishes, can save a man, even from far off  Now a blanket is spread, offerings of chutney and shin bones,  a taper held to the fire that heats the tar beneath our boats.   A phial of bathwater discolours on a shelf, unemptied...