Today’s choice

Previous poems

Viv Fogel

by | Aug 10, 2026 | ,

 

 

 

At the End of the Class

 

  1. The young woman in a hijab thanked/praised/appreciated me
  2. For all I had shown/ encouraged/ inspired in her
  3. Asked whether I observed/ took part in/ celebrated Rosh Hashanah?
  4. How did she find out/ realise/ discover that I was Jewish?
  5. I was shocked/ unprepared/ almost ashamed that she’d asked me
  6. Would that matter/ affect her?/ impact on our work together?
  7. Would she still trust/ accept support/ be taught by me?
  8. I wanted to explain/ dissociate from/ apologise for the genocide.
  9. I am silent/ confused/ there are no words. We exchange a look.
  10. Did something like recognition/ warmth/ sisterhood/ flit between us?

 

 

Viv Fogel London-based psychotherapist, poet, artist, grandmother, activist daughter of refugees. Her poems are published in many anthologies and journals. Recent collection is  Imperfect Beginnings  (Fly on the Wall Press,  2023) and she’s currently co-editing the writings of women in Afghanistan, to be published in October.

Martin Fisher

by | Dec 20, 2025 | ,

Inside, in the half-light, the iron rot took hold.
Forgotten service–obsolete.
Salt-coin neglect.

The money flowed inland,
Moored on an hourglass choke.
No one told the sea.

Amirah Al Wassif

by | Dec 17, 2025 | ,

Beneath my armpit lives a Sinbad the size of a thumb.
His imagination feeds through an umbilical cord tied to my womb.
Now and then, people hear him speaking through a giant microphone—
Singing,
Cracking jokes,

Mark Smith

by | Dec 16, 2025 | ,

In the portacabin that morning, men smoked
and looked at last week’s paper again.
There was no water to fill the urn.
The first job – to get connected

Toby Cotton

by | Dec 15, 2025 | ,

A blustery day –
the wind too strong for kites
or for lifts to the sky.
“To a thoughtful spot,” it cites
and pins me to the earth.