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Tongues of Fire

Seán Hewitt

‘Waking, close to morning but still
a shuttered, metal dark in the room’

Two poems by Seán Hewitt from Tongues of Fire, shortlisted for the 2020 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.

Two Poems

Hirata Toshiko

‘If I go to the window, / it could easily turn into bullets or rabbits.’

Surge

Jay Bernard

‘The black is coming in from the cold,
rolling up the beach walls, looking for light.’

Two poems by Jay Bernard, from their debut collection Surge, shortlisted for the 2020 Young Writer of the Year Award.

Four Poems

Bill Manhire

‘There is only one of me, she says, / but we all know there are two.’

Fossil Dinner

Daisy Lafarge

‘The poor dish looks just like me.’

Summer. Gates of the Body.

Galina Rymbu

‘I want to eat your rough hand that caresses me.’

Two Poems

Aaron Fagan

‘it / Was chaos in the way nature is a chaos.’

Five Poems

Sawako Nakayasu

‘Although bara is homonymous with rose, this is not a rose-rose incident.’

Four Poems

Ian Seed

‘We were afraid to touch it – it looked cold enough / to burn us.’

At the Peckhamplex

Will Harris

‘the snow reflecting off / your torch was the / colour of your thoughts’

Secretions

Colin Herd

‘No I’m not tired I said. / No I’m not thirsty I said. / I’m sassy.’

Power and Privilege

Ken Babstock

‘We do it all day every day until we can’t see. / We do it with a belt between our teeth.’

Poem Written from Inside a Leather Pig Mask

Sam Sax

‘child who dreams of growing into / a swan only to wake in terror at a mouth / filled with feathers.’

Communion

Rachel Long

‘Behold the miracle of afro hair.’