The privet leaves disordered
by stiff gusts, long henna’d strands
flurry at her face, in memory.
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‘I swelter in the dusk / and chase the flies, abstractedly, / until I half forget them.’
The privet leaves disordered
by stiff gusts, long henna’d strands
flurry at her face, in memory.
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‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
Peter Robinson lives with his wife in Cambridge. He has published over twenty books of poetry. His translations of Vittorio Sereni and Ungaretti have also won great acclaim. His most recent collection of poetry, Buried Music, was published in 2015.
More about the author →
‘Words only point to experience, they can’t replace it.’
Vanessa Onwuemezi and Colin Herd discuss UFOs, relation, and the search for an inner sense of home.
‘How do we perform our politics, our outrage and our grievances when we are among a group?’
Anthony Anaxagorou talks about his collection Heritage Aesthetics.
‘It was a commonplace / to enter the woods / with meat, lay it on the ground, then / wait for what might come.’
Poetry by Michael Bazzett.
‘He’d lost her first name in a burst of senseless coloured lights and he couldn’t tell her his own name because he didn’t know it.’
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