Today’s choice
Previous poems
Konstandinos (Dino) Mahoney
Box
A teacher guides his pupils past headless marble torsos,
dusty cabinets of tiny Attic coins, pockmarked stylobates,
to a large clay pithos, Said to be the original Pandora’s Box,
he tells them, reading from his Lonely Planet Guide.
They stare at the old clay pot – not even a box.
A tall boy steps forward, sticks his head in it and belches.
Teacher shepherds them out into furnace heat,
their tour bus shimmering on a cloud of blue exhaust.
The janitor yawns, turns off the air-conditioning,
putts off downhill on his vintage motor scooter.
Abandoned, the exhibits maintain a silent indifference.
But inside the pithos, something stirs.
Konstandinos (Dino) Mahoney won publication of his collection, The Great Comet of 1996 Foretellsin the 2021 Live Canon collection competition. Tutti Fruiti was a winner of the Sentinel Poetry Book Competition. His poem, ‘Peace Pipe’ was voted poem of the month in IS&T. https://www.dinomahoney.co.uk/
Rebecca Bilkau
Travel essentials
A rucksack isn’t a kitchen dresser, or a view, or
a whirl of Christmas Market cinnamon, sweet almonds…
Sylvie Jane Lewis
Water Damage Noted 06/24
An old lady enters, soak-dizzy,
puts her returned book on the trolley.
Leigh Manley
Should You Wish to Imagine Poetry in Ventricular Ectopy
False starts, I’m aching to roll with you,
though you catch me stumbling off beat latches…
Patrick Wright
When you drew lines in the sand with your long white cane
the lesson was that faces can be found just about anywhere.
S.C. Flynn
TENTH VIEW OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Araucania, Chile, 1800 AD
This is no job for the young, Melipal…
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.