Nest - Leonie Ewing
Great Tit
Claws curl into pebbledash,
gravity defied in the search
for an invertebrate meal.
This is the warm up act.
Next up a horizontal flapper
dance right across the too
smooth frame of uPVC.
Gillain Mellor
Maths prompt
Grace Hopper's Light-foot Lecture for Leaders
Grace wouldn't be pigeon-holed as pure
Navy. She preferred to be a pirate dying
to be released. She lectured to Generals
and Admirals, explained to the forever
impatient how data took time to arrive
from space. She gave out wire pieces
a length of 12 inches: a light-foot - how
far light would travel one nanosecond.
A millisecond was an uncoiled wire
a thousand feet long, a picosecond
pepper grains poured onto palms.
They passed the time between them,
no need of equations since school, more
used to marking lines on sand and sea,
they knew when the speed of information
equalled men's lives, couldn't grasp
the weight behind the question.
Gillian Mellor
Hanging the Painting
‘You bought it with her?’
‘Yes, we agreed on the one
we liked best, this happened.’
I want you to hate it
and her and you do! Well
what she did...and didn't…..
but this wide sapphire sea
the dipping hull dissecting it
the taut white sails fully rigged
in a beating wind, these live in
the golden frame desperate
hearts aspire to
I see how you tried
to marry her into your
journey. How you'll try
again with me……
‘Put it up here then’ my voice
sounding small and brave like
a hanky wave from the shore.
Clare Phillips
Goldfinch - Tom Langlands
Coupledom
You’d think I’d be over it by now. I’m used to being on my own, going out to places by myself, eating out solo in cafes, and staying in single rooms when away from home…
… and yet…
You know that phenomenon which strikes you the second you and your man have decided to start a family? When the world is full of pregnant bellies, prams and pushchairs, and young mums and their offspring pop up at every corner to remind you that you haven’t got there yet? It’s a bit like that.
Lately, wherever I am, all I see is couples. Couples wandering along the street, hand in hand, some silent, some in animated conversation. Couples seated opposite each other in restaurants, compionable, complete. Couples in theatres, parks, stately homes, and at sporting events. Couples enjoying their grandchildren, sharing the shopping trips, deliberating on new décor.
Couples, living out a retirement I always thought we’d reach.
Linda Powell
Seasons prompt
Indian Summer
Sky, clouds its own reflection,
Pours light into every upturned
Flower cup, late summer benison
Before Autumn harvest gathers seeds
For next year’s crop of colour.
Walking in these still, green days
My eyes find rest in small things;
Lingering swallows, tattered butterflies,
Tousled asters, late roses,
Greet me like old friends.
Grey dust clings to boots
Imagination sees snow powder,
A little while, it will arrive,
Until then sunlit warmth still dapples
This old track, a sheltered bench.
Anne Micklethwaite.
Undercurrents.
A spring spate
Higher in its course,
Becoming a placid rill
For guddling trout
Supports a clutch of ducks
Who learn to preen
And swim and dive,
Feed on the slippery algae
Greening all the stones,
Nibble with eager beaks
At water-weeded banks,
Content to dwell
In tranquil coolness,
Knowing nothing
Of the torrent far above
Thelma Hancock
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