Today’s choice

Previous poems

Kate Vanhinsbergh

 

 

 

We Should Probably Get Up Now

but, outside, the world has paused:
the wind has put down its loneliness,

its fear of never being seen, or known,
and next door’s kids have stopped screaming

through the wall. The cats are curled up
around our ankles, and you say you like me

like this, with the sun falling in slabs
through the window, onto my hair,

my curls glowing orange on the pillow.
You touch my cheek

with the backs of your fingers.
In this room, we have nothing but time –

glasses of water; a vase of white roses;
miles of cotton drawn up and spun

from the earth. I could have believed
that all chances, all paths crossed

were love’s quiet design,
the architecture of its concussive maze.

 

 

Kate Vanhinsbergh is a poet from Manchester, UK, and can be found on Instagram @kate.vanhinsbergh or X @katevanbergh

Paul Bavister

We found our eyes first,
as they swirled through fragments
of black jumper, dark pine trees
and an orange sunset sky

Phil Vernon

Because we were four
and I only had strength to carry one
and knew no other way
I carried the one who called out loudest;
threatened us most.