Harvest
the best tomatoes grow close to the dirt. their cunning makes them sweeter, ripening in hiding like any masterpiece awaiting an end to incubation: dew-drops in shades of ruby glittering, garnet, sanguine beads slowly seeping, secretly, from spined vines and hives, from stems and suckers, tric
The Nordic Hut
Leaving you, I longed for one lone hut, red against the vast grey sea. Longed to sink my boots into the snow, to seek to spread the net of my spirit. To be more than a sister, a friend, a partner, when that cold courage blustered through me. I have now forgotten your name—or is […]
Wisteria
Love never came and raved but bent low and whispered: spring wisteria that once dipped its neck to press its pretty face to yours. You bent too, to listen, and every building stooped to see your sunlit form find silence in the street. ∎ Words by James Turner. Art by Betsy McGrath.
help for when the tide is out
Sometimes I forget that I can walk for hours – So unlike the long stupid steps, my crawl Under a desk or up the stairs or through the Door when drunk, a spilled coin of vodka Inflating itself on the bedroom carpet, piles Of laundry, crowded surfaces, weight of loose change – And if [&hell
Post-Mortem of a Fallow Field
I dreamt of home last night. Your eyes were green – a cut of lime against the tongue – they startled me like birds start at the sheep-herds bawling. You had warned of something mystic, pearl chowders, purple dusks – you had said:
The Jam Jar Forest
we went looking for the Jam Jar Forest, with memories in jars – shutting the lids tightly, so they wouldn’t leak on the way. we searched the night horizon for silver branches craning upwards in a moonlight photosynthesis. i said, listen, for the singing of a finger on a wine glass rim. follow it
seven and serpentine
i’d recline on the green couch, on peeling patches of fabric held by white string. […]
Afterthought
In another time my tongue has learnt to trace around the syllables of your laughter. You will forgive my blush, forgive the sameness of my body to yours: both small-breasted, bleeding. In afternoons, your fingers press miso into vegetables; the light scurries into my hands, a ti
Extinctions
The Galápagos Islands, best known as the inspiration for Charles Darwin’s pioneering work on evolution, are home to 103 endemic species not found anywhere else in the world. Such a place presents myriad mysteries and opportunities for scientists. Amongst the overlooked treasures of the archipelag
