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      On the edge of the Arctic If the light were to leave our world, what of it? We would gather with fire under sturdy roof. We would share spirits and stories, songs, laughter. We would sleep soft in warmth of ourselves. If the light stuck up above,...

      Full Sail She feels like a ship in a bottle, its sails pulled erect, through its neck by a man with a string. He sighs with pleasure, as he seals it with a cork. Placing her on an ornate shelf, he can keep an eye on her, admire her graceful lines....

Join us for a live zoom reading from Ron Egatz and Matthew Caley in our new occasional 'Live from the Butchery' series, hosted by Helen Ivory and Martin Figura from their home.  The reading will take place on Sunday 26th July, 4pm GMT, 11am EDT. (Email Kate at...

      Crowdsourced doctor said the signs were exit car park X-ray and Costa an extra shot stay strong anyway that blood's gone off to Glasgow wasn’t very old googled it nervous of course not sure which floor we’re on the road to cappuccino yes it’s...

      Home Comfort The village now has broadband: it’s easy to work from home, to cut and paste a spreadsheet, play with the Xbox, reel in, on a short cyber-thread a boxvan from the nearest town laden with super-fruit and exotic bread. Some still walk...

      Vertigo Approaching midnight and the gouges of a mountain lean over us, weeping boulders. Each bend is a hook, hauling us higher. The car howls like a colicky child. I grip the door, you tug at the wheel, a cracked silence thrumming about whose...

      Our Stories Have Been Told To Us Our stories have been told to us, worse we told them, wove them in and out our lives, back and forth and last and first our stories have been told to us, worse to pull them out leaves an absence, a curse, though...

      When I had a mental illness I just can’t beat it (Quote from Manchester by the Sea) In the unaccounted hours I used to wake up awake. One night I awoke with semen all over my legs I dreamt that I was sexual and wished, and wished, in the glue of...

      Low Heath Wake hearing driven rain and darkness. Little lights along the shore. People shuffle in corridors, doors clunk, beeps reveal patients’ oxygen, heat, blood-force. I dreamed a sickly landscape, my home above the harbour, low heath,...

      Sprout I confess I am an idiot who believes in luck and the mania of new projects. If you drive these up to the mountains for the weekend, they may grow a sprout, and you may be allowed a tinfoil hat and a bird familiar. Seek vortices in rural...

      Runes The water was everywhere but not our awareness of it. We only knew the ice -- the age of ice was when we lived our mammoth lives, sabre toothed towards extinction. At the onset of the great thaw we were reborn evolved, undergone mutation....

      Year of the Plague There have been plagues, before. There has been death, spreading like a blanket drawn across the face of the world. There will always be fear, of war, of famine, all of those abysmal things which are too big for us to picture,...

      Night Train Tall lights beam downwards blanking the night sky casting long sleeping shadows across the yard. Darkness edges the mainline.  A taxi, yellow light on, returns over the bridge. Slow, uncertain shunting starts up. Stops. Rain tries,...

      Cottage I turn around to see my mother on the roof, clinging to a chimney. How did she get there? She’s shouting down instructions: which apples to pick from the orchard behind me. And then, as if waking from a dream, she looks around in...

  Six Feather gashes cut the deepest because I can’t figure out their motives; this game of Russian roulette we play will kill me because you always load six cartridges. I think there is a wolf cub lost in this city, lost from his pack. My wrappers fall from my...