Today’s choice
Previous poems
Tonnie Richmond
Secrets
We could tell there was something
we weren’t allowed to know. Something
kept hidden from us children,
something not quite right with Mr Jones.
We wondered why his wife
had rabbit-in-the-headlight eyes.
When blue lights came that night,
we woke, watched from our beds.
An ambulance for her,
police van for him.
We always knew, the grownups said.
Tonnie Richmond lives in Leeds, loves Orkney and archaeology. She has had over 50 poems published in various anthologies and magazines. Her pamphlet, Rear-view Mirror, was published by Yaffle’s Nest in 2023. She is currently working on her first collection.
Ilse Pedler
Jed of the Dodgems My brother said you can’t make a mountain out of a sow’s arse and at sixteen he ran away to join the fair; changed his name from Gordon to Jed of the Dodgems, grew his hair, slicked it back with Brylcreem perfected the art of...
Melanie Branton
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Kenneth Pobo
Mrs. Panterluck says she doesn’t know why she keeps dis- appearing. One minute she’s in a mall walking over to a perfume kiosk and the next she’s gone. It’s like she misplaces her skin. Wherever she is, she retains a brain, though Mr....
Ruth Aylett
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Caleb Parkin
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Philip Dunkerley
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Steve Griffiths
Your artificial light gave out Your garden has no security, just the electronic sensor that whispers in husky unpredictable clicks that accompany the moths feeding in the darkness. To your mind, to my mind the world of the moths will be...
David Punter
Neighbourhood News Hi, I’m Bill. I’ve just moved in to that little house on New Street (you know the one, it’s been covered in graffiti for God knows how long). I’ve got six dogs and a dead rabbit which I keep in the fridge as well as lots of...
Gurpreet Bharya
Imagining myself as a bitter, old woman Here I am as old as you said I would grow altogether alone drinking tea curled up with a gossip of stars and the milky thaw of the moon – the thrum of the air still thrums in me as the flowers fold in...