Neil Elder

Neil Elder

Fact or Fiction Mornings, I scroll through the news on my phone;I like to know the world still exists before leavingthe house. Though today, I don’t want to readabout how Europe is on fire and the ice capsare melting, I just don’t have capacity anymore.Instead I shall...
Anne Stewart

Anne Stewart

Charlie Charlie was huge – ‘last time I saw a spider as big as that’a man I loved had told me once ‘I tried to bash it with my shoeand it took it off me and hit me back…’ She was blackest black – glossy, plum of a body,short stout legs at the ready, eyes peeled better...
Jen Herron

Jen Herron

The Dead They buried him in a shoeboxamongst the terraced stones,packed in tight as teeth. God help the hand that puts me there.Don’t sandblast my nameon a bookmarked bible slab.Don’t trap me in an eight by six,gawked at by the passing busas next door’s dog lifts its...
Dennis Tomlinson

Dennis Tomlinson

Cheddar Gorge I walked up the road from Anne’s hotel,climbing onto limestone heights,kaleidoscope inside my head. I can’t … I can’t … it’s impossible … I thought the cliffs an awesome sight,below the bushes dropping steep,suffused in eerie golden light. I can’t … I...
Kate Hendry

Kate Hendry

Talking to Thrushes for Andy, of Maggie’s Centre Instead of you, I’ll talk to the thrush.As I can’t book an appointment,I’ll talk to a sparrow too – one that calls from the hawthorn.Or the nervous starlingon the green steel bridge. When birds are hidden, I’ll talkto...