Today’s choice

Previous poems

Paul Stephenson

 

 

 

Attraction

Like one of those horses
on the carousel

going round and round in circles
sliding up and down a pole

for three minutes
then stopping a while

then starting again
for three minutes

sliding up and down a pole
in circles going round and round

on the carousel
like one of those horses

going round and round in circles
sliding up and down a pole

for three minutes
then stopping a while

then starting again
for three minutes

sliding up and down a pole
in circles going round and round

on the carousel
like one of those horses

 

Paul Stephenson’s debut collection is Hard Drive (Carcanet, 2023), shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award and Polari Book Prize. His last pamphlet was Selfie with Waterlilies (Paper Swans Press, 2017). He recently co-edited the ‘Ownership’ (92) issue of Magma Poetry and helps programme Poetry in Aldeburgh. Website: paulstep.com

Peter Leight

There’s more waste than we use for the things we ordinarily use waste for, such as piling it on barges and sending them out to sea, tucking it under the surface like a layer of insulation . . .

Ansuya Patel

Women scrape coins from their purse,
count pennies, one lifts up a watermelon
in mid-air like raising a newborn to light.

Abiodun Salako

a boy grows tired
of dying again and again.

                                                                                                                                       i am building him a morgue
                                                                                                                                                       for Thanksgiving.