Today’s choice

Previous poems

Janet Hatherley

by | Aug 25, 2026 | ,

 

 

 

In my cookery exam, we have to prepare a family meal

This is summer
and Mum can’t put out
her trot line with its hooks
because of swimmers
so I buy three mackerel
from the fishmonger.

I cycle to the school bus stop
one arm on the handlebar,
carrying my ingredients
in a square biscuit tin
under my other arm.

In the cookery room
I slit the fish open,
bright-eyed, translucent 
green and silver,
tip the guts and
maroon hearts
into the bin.

I scrape off the scales
with a blunt knife, 
place the fish under the grill.

On the plate
I pipe mashed potato
around them
in rosettes.

My cookery teacher is pleased.
I come first in the exam.

 

Janet Hatherley’s pamphlet, What Rita Tells Me, and collection, On the road to Cadianda, were published by Vole.  She has poems in magazines, including Culture Matters and Ink Sweat and Tears, winning 1st prize in Enfield poetry competition, 2025.  @JanHatherley

Miriam Swales

by | Jul 21, 2026 | ,

When I was 12, I knew the weight of a human head.
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (a bit of dark comedy).
It grew from there. The curiosity. The calculations.

Annie Kissack

by | Jul 15, 2026 | ,

      Girl Awaits the Psychic Investigators They’re late. The table is laid with a clean cloth, all normal and neat. Our visitors, city men, may find it hard to navigate the path but we can wait. They hope to gather evidence of a haunting; whether he’ll...