Today’s choice
Previous poems
Clare Bryden
The long arc
I
seek justice
and you hold
a seashell to your ear
hear
oceans whispering limitless
sssshhh
history heaps sheering waves
shattering across reefs
sweeping shallow bays
rearing breakers
pound shelving beaches
scatter shells with razor-sharp edges
II
knowledge like coral
shelters fluid ecosystems
and fragile
when bleached and gone
none can be recouped
crocheting hyperbolic space
clarebryden.co.uk @clarebryden.bsky.social
Matthew Thorpe-Coles
You retreat back to your bedroom,
your headset cooler than any
sunlight . . .
S Reeson
only now is it apparent how
dishonouring a body is a crime
Paul Connolly
At Aber Falls
he felt nothing
water sheeted
past grottoes
snakes of tributary
lazed along
Cindy Botha
I notice her because she doesn’t have a dog
in an afternoon of dog-walkers
Alex Josephy
the goddess of the library
extends in cloth-bound curves
along a lettered shelf
Ben Banyard
There were hundreds of them, all in period costume,
each generation explained who they were,
queued like at a wedding reception to greet us.
Lindsay McLeod Espinoza
Venus passed over the south node of the Moon today
Ilse Pedler
She offered up her linen bag to me, said
pick a shell my lady and I’ll tell your fortune
Sue Butler
Squirrels have beheaded all my parrot tulips
and the supermarket is out of chilli, also tabasco sauce.