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      You used to be shorter When we first came here two seasons ago You were barely as high as my hip Now you can look me right in the eye It’s almost impossible to believe You’re not quite as tall as Giannis But you hope that one day you can Jump like...

    Pivotal When our plaything ricochets falling who knows where everything hinging on the line there is a precise moment when nothing is certain a glorious terrifying uncontrollable wait the receptacle of our hopes poised mid- air with infinite trajectories...

      Art Exhibit I hear the roar of the ocean. I hear a series of shrieks and long screams. An eventual lull comes. My ears are an abstraction. I don’t know what to tell you. Last night a spider made its way inside my ear. It crawled out with fragments...

      Roman curses Nobody knows what Cicero’s gardener whistled to his figs and olives, what the consul’s young wife hummed to herself while slaves combed beeswax and perfumed oils from Carthage into her hair. Did bawdy odes to Octavia’s backside (Ah,...

      Lighting the Strangers into the cave for Celia Fiennes, who rode 3000 miles around England on horseback in 1697 She hears the locals call it the Devil’s Arse. the hill on one End jutting out in two parts and joyns in one at ye top this Cleft...

      A moonless night when lanterns are shuttered The track leads through thickets, threaded with eyes. Elusive scraps of dreams, they gleam, flicker out. Long dead stars pierce the canopy with pinpricks of white, cold and exact. I stumble through...

      Elements On my son’s desk lies the periodic table of the elements. I look. Amongst the arcane names I recognise, easy as breathing, carbon, oxygen, gold, beloved of kings. He shows me how it’s laid out – from left to right by increasing atomic...

      Forty (for Maryna) The first three days of war have a surprising holiday feel. No deadlines, just the giddy gasp of shock. Ordinary life continues. The girl in white socks in the flat downstairs plays a prelude then turns, pleased, to an audience...

    Conscience as taught her by the nuns   was a bridle on a young girl’s tongue   pony frolic legs a choke-hold   on convolvulus excess seductive as leaves skittering over moon scatter grass   dandelion pappus   weighted with girlish longings   a...

      A Memory Moves Me On (Teenage Years) Teenage years everything begins it never ends Berries shout my name at the fruit stall I hear a voice sing more than words, see   the cross of his cheekbones, the shade of his hair. I save his image to a locked...

      Minder Care is a state in which something does matter – Rollo May I didn’t know what to do with all my dad’s love so, I minded it for him fully intending to give it back one day. Thing is, that day never arrived, the time never seemed right and...

      Testing the mettle Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche. A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose. The Reeves Tale, Canterbury Tales, Chaucer. Such a knife, a real Et Tu Brute number. Bone handled, incisive. Decades of marriage had whetted...

      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,...