Dr Fran Lock is a some-time itinerant dog whisperer, the author of seven poetry collections and of numerous chapbooks, most recently...

Grandfather Peeling back his eyelids to contest the glistening tongue of morning that rose to his memory, he could not see. And so he...

Ghost Ship No one but she is aware of the whale baleen inserted in her stay like a sword in a scabbard. He'd carved his ship with a...

Flour, Eggs, Milk, Baking Powder, Salt and God O Best Beloved, tell me, if you know, why – the world over – when that woman bending...

Photograph by Steve Shepherd for non-catholic foreigners, rome alongside shelley and keats belinda lee, born in devon 1935 thrown from...

love in the time of celery i always imagined my yellow brick road would lead me to a future, if not emerald, at least the colour of pale...

Author's note Baba Yaga is a witch from Slavic folktale. Sometimes seen as dangerous and violent, she is also a healer and a wise woman,...

Pulteney Weir I want it like this, but without the dark water, without the signs: NO DIVING! KEEP OUT! I want to rest here, but without...

performance amphitheatres are carved from bones and stagger into stone have traps in their floors troughs to drain blood bars protect the...

Consider the choices that you made * All those options that seemed available to you were what you could afford. You bring with you, your...

17 A small-town clothier in thrall to political ideas but minus any ability to generate same parlays a talent for stump speaking into...

They Spoke to Me of People, and of Humanity They spoke to me of people, and of humanity. But I've never seen people, or humanity. I've...

Toes And the little one carries a blade. The barb of too-long pinkie nail leaves blood-sludge on tights like rust on a car; the one...

Josephine Balmer writes: "After hearing his nephew sing one of Sappho's lyric songs, the Athenian lawgiver Solon ordered the boy to teach...

Jeopardy My father built biceps working for US Steel smelting iron in heat that humbled men. Now I could break his arm over my knee,...

Photograph by Laura Veres To Endure Until The Third Day He told them to leave the mountain when the time came, to run around the lake...

The Peak District Evening. The grass, as bright as snow, thickens and dulls; becomes a mottled flank. It breathes, I swear. The starkness...

The Horrible Hand - for Lawrence Raab wakes up in a bad mood, hung over, strung out, just horrible. You've heard of hard cases who crawl...

Bonfire Charred trees stand still. Their baggage makes them strong. Smoke drifting over the paddock becomes a drifting song A barren...

Waiting in the tunnel Each year as I reached up on tiptoes my fingers explored a new ledge. My breath held in the darkness between two...

On 5 April 1884 Tolstoy "got up late". Maya, one hundred thirty-six years later, did the same. What it was was raining that's what it was...

Image by Rusudan Appearance(s) In the fog it's a question of who to trust. You might be a barista or a wolf. Behind mask and protective...

A Crocodile in Neverland After Lisa Black’s "Fixed Crocodile". Lisa Black is a New Zealand artist who often combines taxidermied animals...

As a Human Being There is the happiness you have And the happiness you deserve. They sit apart from one another The way you and your...