Today’s choice

Previous poems

Sarah James/Leavesley

 

 

 

A mouthful of stones

The sister I don’t have
has pockets bulging
with silver-foiled chocolate
and popping candy, rustling-
wrapped strawberry surprises
and infinite packets
of unopened love hearts.

She leaves me the pocket
full of stones, ones my mum
won’t be able to smooth

to marble or polish like sea glass.
Ones my dad will throw
to the waves in hope,
only for them to sink
instead of skim.

My parents will weigh me down
with rocks to stop
my flying off too.

I’ll learn to weigh myself
against her
and kiss the cold water.

 

 

Sarah James/Leavesley is a prize-winning poet, fiction writer, journalist and photographer. Latest collections include Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams), an ekphrastic book-length poetry narrative which won the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024, and Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press). Website: http://www.sarah-james.co.uk.

May Grier

I wasn’t to know
that it was a three-tusked
beast; that there was not one,
not two, but three
that grew the seed of me.

Trelawney

What is holding you back from building your wormery?

You can’t say there isn’t the time. Everyone has the time
when it comes to a wormery. Born with the right tools to hand.

David Van-Cauter

…4am and the birdsong begins, a wet January in a new city and I’m alone watching a man in Minnesota, murdered for protecting a woman from a fascist hit squad. . .