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      The art of cutting and stitching My mother’s knife made the first cuts – she removed my fertile light bulbs, then stuffed my womb with shredded tissues. Not cruelty, you understand, but failed protection. Men have still hacked and moulded. A chop,...

      Serenity Prayer god grant us the serenity / to accept the things we cannot change / the courage to change the / things we can / and the wisdom to know el differencio / such as / true Heinz ketchup / vs Aldi home brand / the subtle grief of budget...

      Four-Leaf Clover We searched so long for that clover. Every time the sun shone we scoured the fields and woods, running past the children playing with skipping ropes and hula hoops. Then you came to me and said you found one. The tape transparent...

      The Headteacher Counts Down to the School Firework Display for BB 10    Children dart in the dark, screamers streaming sweets and neon, their parents 9          huddling, clutching wholesale beers sold for a profit by the PTA 8          So many...

      Summer Days Those hot hot summer days. Hair curling against sticky clammy foreheads. Pony tails, pig tails or braids. Keep it off our neck and backs. Sometimes we’d skinny dip in the middle of the afternoon. Having a glorious time being mermaids,...

      Telephone Piece 電話 ピース (after Music of the Mind, Tate Modern) Hello it's Yoko Yoko desu   Hello it's Yoko Yoko desu   Hello it's Yoko Yoko desu Purchase an old-fashioned telephone Place your tongue in a number hole Taste the dust Or if you like...

      Jesus Spends Some Time at the Circus Freak Show He feels at home with the others. None of them cast stones. All of them grow flowers. Jesus climbs the few steps to the pool, pauses on the edge, looking down. This time it’s just for his friends. He...

      We Play Rock-Paper-Scissors Every evening at the care home, I pull in two armchairs til they’re facing. Opposites, we never fist bump, high-five or touch each other’s vying outstretched fingers. The dictionary says this ancient game has many...

          Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a Tamil poet and producer.Their play Period Parrrty will open at Soho Theatre later this year. Their debut novel-in-verse, Bad Queer, is forthcoming with Faber. gayathiri.co.uk, @unembarrassable.  ...

      Swing Beam Assembly Take eight each of hex bolts washers, locks... it’s important to fasten these tightly. There’s a spanner you can borrow. Set the beam so the edge with holes faces up without holes faces down secure the rails. And now...

      Glimmers Things have been rough lately. It seems impossible now, as the breeze relieves us and we silhouette peacefully under the evening beams kicking the dust as The branches wave on wands in the skyscape I wonder how I’ve cried so much When I...

Watching, January 2021 The new year slouches forward, unlovable, barely acknowledged but for tired, gritty eyes and a muffled scream into the kitchen towel. Pale moonlight streams through the blinds, watching the night in shiftless wakeful patterns, patience hardening...

Dehydration Never has there been so much interest in the humble tongue. It peek-a-boos from my mouth like the little man in a weather clock. The consultant’s quick look predicts storms in its fur. She keeps pouring water into my glass as fast as I can gulp it down –...

      weeks after being stabbed my brother saw his attacker at a petrol station my brother was alone & did not get out of the car even in the ambulance my brother said he wasn’t scared even when the white bathtowel we pressed against the stab wound...

The night before their wedding, Dad tells Mum two things   I. He’s ten years older than he’d said, which makes him twenty-eight years older, not eighteen. It’s a bad blow.  What’s done can’t be undone.  Mum’s only choice is a hostel for unmarried mothers. She puts on...

      Child's Innocence in Gaza We are the ones who see big crackers burst every day— still wondering why the adults hate crackers. While everyone loves simulation games, we live inside them— the most real simulation is the war around us. There are so...

      Tinkerbell on Queensway She barely glances at you when you chink your spare coins in her upturned cap, but still spreads a spell among the pavement footfalls, making her patch by the station a land you try not to invade. Not that you never see men...

      Shedding Annamakerrig It begins high up the chestnut tree with leaves on the twigs on the tips of branches where sap has slowed. Turning amber carried by the breeze they touch the earth, rest on the grass where autumn begins   Tim...