Today’s choice
Previous poems
Ian Hickey
Stop
When the half-light drops below the horizon
the birth of darkness comes and I can see
myself in the mirror of the moon
madness shining in the moonlight
The birdsong gone The hedges
silent The world edges
to a place of no
return and I’m
trying to
tell it
stop
.
Ian Hickey lives in County Clare, Ireland. He was winner of the Waterford Poetry Prize in 2022. His poetry has appeared in The Waxed Lemon, The Belfast Review and The Stony Thursday Book.
Hedy Hume
Stepping into the opposing seat
I smile, and the look I receive
Makes me feel the antisocial one.
Matthew F. Amati
Hands said to Head
look what you’ve made me do
it’s not me, Head said, talk to
Heart, that guy’s sick
Mariam Saidan
‘Female singing constitutes a ‘forbidden act’ (ḥarām),
punishable under Article 638 of the Islamic Penal Code.’
Meg Pokrass
This is what happens when she sits alone in her dining room, eating smoked trout and canned sardines.
Chen-ou Liu
this fresh morning
so much like the others …
yet starlings shape-shift
Jim Paterson
A Tuesday morning in November
out on the street taking in the bins.
As a flight of crows flashed past
the street lights went out.
Andy Humphrey
Noises are louder now: the kesh
of tyres on tarmac slicked
with leaves. Rain’s drumming thunder.
Chrissie Gittins
When you’ve used one handle to open the door,
use the other handle to close it.
Morgan Harlow
She hadn’t lost a child but if she had she imagined it would be like that.