Halfway within
the sheltering woods
you found yourself.

we are holding each other so we don’t forget
the way water holds us.

You will need four hundred items in the stew of her:
cumin, lemon, colocynth, bitter apple, lime, broccoli
to get the aftertaste she would want in your memory.

– Sue Spiers

It took years to piece events
together; hushed voices, evasions,
or little glances…

– Mike Huett

Took my pain, buried it in buttercream.
Unboxed, licked off the top, Masticated
each grain into saline, let my bloodstream
drip-feed membranes their acid-fat. In bed,

-Zeeshan Choudhury

consists of tiny pink erasers,
safety pins, shirt buttons and the odd
butterfly clip.

-Emma Lara Jones

corners folded
edges worn.
where girls in
the night’s meski
giggle in secret
hair in tangles.

When all is quiet save for the silky rustling of an autumn breeze
let that love show.

When your patience is darkness-dappled and as weary as an exhausted scholar
let that love show.

session in the woods. Someone took a feather
to the hairdressers. Gum cross-sectioned
my cheek; he forgot about removal to kiss.
Had to avoid tree roots, placed us on green.
He mentioned his bullied niece kept reaching
for her blanket; Mr. Smith is quaking regression,

but sunlight streaming in
through impractically curtainless windows;
my skin, made-up in golden light,
looking taught from affluence
and vitamins.

Like they do in films,

wait for the witch who comes to pick wild garlic.
Together we can be brave and
pull the green bits from her teeth.
Wandering the glen with
nothing in our pockets, we can search
for the place where fairies still live.
No one will find us there,
not even the old grey bell they ring at tea time.