In the Garden Where the Gorgons Live by Danie Shokoohi
Winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2018 Poetry Category … and then i step outside my body the way you leave a house when someone is breaking in … and in the garden where the gorgons live, the topiary is singing … and he says…
Poetry
Where the Weight Catches by Claire Lynn
Where the Weight Catches In the Fat Giraffe shop you find a wooden bucket labelled South China, Antique and you want to laugh: £45 for a night-soil bucket!
Poetry
Belly Dancer Meets Hilāl as Horseman by Rushda Rafeek
Belly Dancer Meets Hilāl as Horseman … Hilāl, you scimitar of fajr-blue spring … above the vast patio … tousled with tendrils thick … as century, as rose-windows raying … a kiss in sujood. Here, arms sprawl … like date palms. Here, I’m falcon than fellahin … serpent than sequined.
Poetry
Poetry: I began to drown. by Gemma Weekes
Illustration by Leyla Reynolds … I began to drown. It will not be news to you That the little mermaid is a black girl. If you’re honest You knew this all along. Who else is made to sell Her tongue for passage?
Poetry
That Summer by Aileen La Tourette: second prize in the Writeabridge poetry competition 2017
That Summer We’re lucky we’re not stuck in sweaty New York City like the fathers in their summer suits are every day and the Fresh Air Fund kids in their giveway t-shirts who come down in buses and never get to stay.
Poetry
In That Dream I Became A Stain In My Own House by Connor Frew: winner of the Writeabridge poetry competition 2017
In That Dream I Became A Stain In My Own House I dreamt that I was bitten by venomous snakes The first was a cottonmouth, In my living room The second a black mamba, In my parents’ bedroom In that dream I became a stain in my own house…
Poetry
'Daw' In The Snow by Alan Remfry
'Daw' In The Snow. A bird fell to earth. Black crack in the snow. Moving sharp. Moving slow. Beating out a sky torn track. It is still, like cold air. Coddled under a tree, hiding in a shallow scrape, of its own making. Black folds white, folds back. Pressed to the earth. Waiting.
Poetry
Petit Navire by Mehran Waheed
Il était un petit navire … Qui n’avait jamais navigué. Ohé! Ohé! (Traditional French children’s song) … Petit Navire by Mehran Waheed … Monsters hide beneath your jungle hair, itching to settle like … Migrant lice, refugee nits, Islamic ticks burrowed within your scalp.
Poetry
Letter to Uncle Sam by Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto was an Indo-Pakistani writer, playwright, and author considered among the greatest writers of short stories in South Asian history. Here we reproduce one of his letters (translated from Urdu by Khalid Hasan) to Uncle Sam i.e. the USA, by kind permission of the Universal Poetries website.
NonfictionPoetry
Green Eyed by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
Green Eyed … Due to a genetic mutation which occurred 6,000-10,000 years ago, all blue-eyed people share an ancestor from the Caucasian region…
Poetry
Dogs Who Like Fish by Zillah Bowes
Dogs Who Like Fish … The football field in Siolim’s still green, hopeful after yesterday’s monsoon rain. Only the dogs are out, sleeping sideways … as if fallen in constellation from the sky … like storm drops.
Poetry
I keep trying to lose my body by Amaal Said
I keep trying to lose my body … I imagine the plates of food left uneaten, placed back on the counter … as soon as the kitchen had been emptied. She asked, ‘do you want to die?’ … I knew the right answer was ‘no’ … but my mouth was too dry.
Poetry
Israeli Summer by Janine Rich
Kaitz Israeli (Israeli Summer) -was the name of the movie marathon playing on yes.vod that summer The trailer played constant nostalgic music droning over images of young, dark haired actresses.
Poetry
Five Minute Interview with Richard Scott
Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His poems have appeared widely in magazines and anthologies including Poetry Review, Poetry London, Swimmers, The Poetry of Sex (Penguin) and Butt Magazine.
NonfictionPoetry