Friday night pub crawl in winter Snowflakes fall from the sieve of the sky like sugar, catching on the tongue and melting in an instant....

Gall On the dog-rose a robin's pincushion is Christmas crimson, the pupal gall wasps hunkered down to overwinter, each in its own mossy...

Christmas on Orion Tell me a story. A story from long ago. It's difficult, no longer having the words for Yule log, mistletoe, bauble...

christmas with haya that year the oldest was away, her boyfriend was in china teaching english so they decided to celebrate in hong kong....

We Feel At Home While Running Huskies in Svalbard Husky choir: Adolfbukta, Anitavika, Alkenebbet, Angelinberget, Arrdalen, Arielhamaren,...

Picture by Brian Fraser Pâté de Foie Gras I'm trying to distract her, my younger self, the daughter eating a slice, her body shivering....

Jilted Belle after Nina Simone you've given me no choice / but to join a coven for the complimentary book of spells / show up unwanted at...

Do They Know After a rendition of Do They Know It’s Christmas, a third mince pie and one last Quality Street, I make the children rest;...

Mole The Christmas chatter shudders slowly to a halt. A fox has come out of the woods. Like everything here, its core is granite. It's...

Merry Matrioshka The Big Wheel stirs the stars carnival crowds shriek and you cradle your bump in the bright bauble of your belly cells...

Nicola Nathan writes: "Channuka", a Jewish festival which often falls in December, means "rededication". In 160 BC, the Jews, led by the...

In a Perfect World I'd rather my old cherry with her white earrings let herself flourish, instead of drying out so her sap feeds...

Dawning They stir, begin to gather up their clothes. Morning leaks in where curtains fail to meet. He leaves, releasing monsters as he...

Recovery I have walked among fighting dogs and lions to get where I am. I have consorted with herons, with pelicans. I am speaking with...

Thrift She is running, skipping towards the granite headland where a mighty fall of rock is the only boundary between land and ocean – a...

slow riot beckett's last room spoke of his sense of self. bed, chair and desk shoes paired against the wall three books (one a...

Dry Velvet The seed germinated where the stag fell. Its tree grew too fast – too close to heaven – and it was punished for its pride. In...

Harvest They've baled the hay in the meadow on the hill. On Wednesday I noticed a tractor kicking up a cloud. There's a pigeon pulling at...

Cordelia The oiled turn to the wave had hidden from the spray Out across the bay no dark has silenced gull nor swell Closer in...

Pillow Talk The couple in the next apartment is not sleeping on their sides. They are flat on their backs looking at their fingers in the...

Twisted after i visit my father my shoes squeak lolita lolita lolita; walking across town makes the town into manga lines, the people...

Temple Street (i.m. Roy Fisher) On Temple Street, a lad with no shoes in grey socks hands over a lighted cigarette without stopping or...

The Giacometti Method There's never an answer one would expect From you, the mark of what you say Is that it emerges plain and unchecked...

Strange Brew When she wasn't working, which was often, she'd make gifts for birthdays and Christmas. Jewellery; beads and silver wire...