Literature

Two Poems

by

All the while the windows wait for no one   While there were those who climbed, It was only you who knew the spaces through the ladders. The dent of shadows Upon the tumbling walls.   When the door is too small to walk through And the gate shifts at your hip. All the while … Read more

RAT RUN

by

They turned up at the door dressed all in black, from their baseball caps and bomber jackets down to their DM boots, and they hustled in like hitmen or bouncers, or bailiffs, or the Old Bill or some kind of security syndicate, shifting on their feet, in uniform, black-gloved hands bearing black briefcases. One of … Read more

Casino

by

Part I You know your father used to go to school next to the Casino at Marino, him and his friends would play around it. For years I would ignore my dad’s connection with the Casino, it was too incongruous a pairing to stick. Two histories known to one site but held discordant in my mind … Read more

Twinned

by

Storrington Place of storks and green- clad chalk. Are the Gypsies still perched on ‘The Warren’?   Camargue Flamingo heaven, white horses, black madonna. Heart’s grey forgiven. Camargue Red dust on the shoes of Gaditans carrying Sara-la-Kali. Storrington At the age of eight: the camp fire by their wagon shed heavenly light. Jamie McKendrick was … Read more

Nonetheless

by

A cormorant dives to feed, then perches, its wings spread to dry. There are fish, there is a break in the clouds. A freighter embarks, laden with necessary goods, including toys,  much as a researcher presents his findings. This world is henceforth one in which these things have taken place, and the gates that would … Read more

Two Poems

by

Anthony Caleshu’s forthcoming book, from which this pair of poems is taken, is titled, A Dynamic Exchange between Us (Shearsman, 2019). He is the author of three previous books of poems, including The Victor Poems (Shearsman, 2015), and Of Whales: in Print, in Paint, in Sea, in Stars, in Coin, in House, in Margins (Salt, 2010; named a ‘book of the year’ … Read more

Psalm 95

by

95 While someone exhorts us In song to sing to God, I’ve looked askance and asked, is he Among us here or not? And found that question, off its no-man’s land Uptaken then in hand, Lies with sheep in shade, And takes its rest in space, Beneath a large-leafed chestnut, bright With burning candles, placed … Read more

Spirit Animals

by

‘I had a dream about you last night.’ Sarah, stuffing wet tuna into pitta pockets and wondering if she could just put the same tangerine, uneaten from yesterday, back into Noah’s lunchbox, stiffened. The now-familiar tightening of her neck, shoulders and arms at the sound of Juliette’s voice went through her like one of those … Read more