Today’s choice
Previous poems
S.C. Flynn
TENTH VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Araucania, Chile, 1800 AD
This is no job for the young, Melipal;
only old women like me will go on
using one dream to explain another
in this language twisted like dry tree roots.
Your five lights have watched us fight the Incas
and live and trade with the Spanish
and you know I’ve fought the evil spirits
as well as any kulku of the Mapuche.
But we both see the invasion coming
and the end of all the old ways;
then even the dreams won’t make sense.
S.C. Flynn was born in a small town in Australia of Irish origin and now lives in Dublin. His poetry has been published in more than a hundred magazines in more than ten countries. His forthcoming collections are “The Colour of Extinction” (Renard Press, October 2024) and “An Ocean Called Hope” (Downingfield Press, May 2025).
Lauren Sheerman
Offices
matins
as the sun thinks of rising i whisper good morning god into my pillow.
Curtis Brown
Property 26-2-24
After West Bank settlement marketing event… in New Jersey.
Some old masters may have operated in good faith:
unclear how they made their riches.
Vidushi Rijuta
Chances
I had nothing to lose,
so I took a chance.
Hilary Hares
The Crofton Road home team play football with the moon
They have no kit to speak of but compensate
with unshakeable belief they’ll ace the cup.
Sue Finch
The moon is a Punch in the sky.
A boy is carrying a bruise.
And nobody is talking to either of them
about ordinary things.
Heather Holcroft-Pinn
These things I know,
and in knowing, can do . . .
Ruth Higgins
You wrestle the car seat’s five-point harness,
scrabble for a foothold in the new life.
Olive M Ritch
We Need to Talk about Shoes
The right shoes
for work, party, funeral.
Kathryn Anna Marshall
Grandad keeps pigeons and canaries
in the same cage. He has never hurt me. He probably could . . .