Today’s choice

Previous poems

Dharmavadana

by | Sep 23, 2025 | ,

 

 

 

Tinkerbell on Queensway

She barely glances at you when you chink
your spare coins in her upturned cap, but still
spreads a spell among the pavement footfalls,
making her patch by the station a land
you try not to invade. Not that you never
see men squat in front of her and wonder
what sort of bargain they’re trying to make –
only to have her stare a silent hex
of fury. Some, though, place a curled sandwich
or tea at her feet, merely for the chance
to hear the music of her gratitude
escape through the rush-hour traffic noise.
If only her wings could outfly the wind
or all the not-so-innocent Lost Boys.

 

 

Dharmavadana lives in Norwich, Norfolk, UK. His poems have appeared in The North, Poetry Salzburg Review, Under the Radar, Ambit, The Interpreter’s House, Prole and other publications. He was poetry editor of the Buddhist arts magazine Urthona from 2013-2023.

Beth Davies, Fee Marshall and Fiona Broadhurst for Day 2 of our Pride Feature

by | Jun 28, 2024 | ,

Trick Question

It was a simple game.
One wall meant Yes. The other meant No.
The teacher would ask a question and we’d each run towards our answer.

Once, she asked “Have you ever been in love?”
At six years old, I ran with certainty towards Yes.
I reached it but found myself alone.
Surprised, I looked over at the others
crowded together on the other side.
“Don’t you love your parents?” I asked,
with all the indignance of a child
who doesn’t understand her mistake.
“Don’t you love your friends?”

Beth Davies

Ace Sex

Sex is when a train runs into a portal
Flies off to outer space
It’s when you suddenly remember the old block tellie
With no channels
That you had to switch on at the block
Sex is
I think it’s an ice cream
One of them novelty flavours like
Popping Raspberry Unicorn
It’s a weird fad but we’re pretty sure
Salted Caramel’s making a comeback

Fee Marshall

Polyamory is wrong
(Mixing Greek and Latin roots? Wrong!)

Polyamory is less orgies, or threesomes
& more Google calendar, blocking out
precious time, increments of love
portioned out as slices of 3.14159,
infinite, neverending & always fulfilling

Fiona Broadhurst

Lara Mae Simpson and Siobhan Dunlop for Day 1 of our Pride Feature

by | Jun 27, 2024 | ,

How to Love the Word “Lesbian”

We took the bus in tutus & fairy wings,
gripped on to the cowboy hat
trying to fly from your curls in July’s breeze.
In Trafalgar Square, floats of rainbow
companies waltzed by & we rolled
our eyes, couldn’t see past tall men,

– Lara Mae Simpson (they/she)

On nights I am

a girl again
I am unemployable as
woman don’t do the
work beg  at corner
of ends on leg
too short for the cripwalk

-Noah Jacob

dreaming of the velvet goldmines

i want to be a skinny pretty boy rockstar
without the height or the coke habit
or needing to strictly be a boy at all

-Siobhan Dunlop (they/them)

Paul Stephenson

by | Jun 26, 2024 | ,

The Conversation

It’s been quite a while now and…
You know we get on like a house…
August twelfth, a year ago, can you…
I bet you thank your lucky…
Things have evolved, haven’t…
Can you believe we’re both still …

Hannah Linden

by | Jun 24, 2024 | ,

She gives me a word to look up
in a dictionary of obscure sorrows.

I, who try to decipher echoes from
other people’s reaction to my words

throw down a bucket into the well
recognise water when people tell me

Nelly Bryce

by | Jun 22, 2024 | ,

Longing curls its legs up on the sofa in our house.
There’s a dip there now.
How I long to turn us into a day trip.

You belong in that chair over there
asking what happened with that text
and where I bought this jumper,