Up Before The Bench

Chris Elliott 2018 I first check out me belts and bracesSo I’m not inconvenienced in any chasesI checks me whistle I checks me watchI checks me truncheon I check the lotNow I’m as smart as any bobby that you’ll ever seeIf her majesty popped by she could rely on meSo I’m ready for me beat … Read more

Anon

My Daughter She’s bright, but no school Not for girls Mummy said Daddy’s gone, no help No money Any medicine For nan, she’s so sick Wish we could Measles, mumps We get them all here Who’s to help? My daughter Works at the big house Hope she’s safe Chimney sweep! He can clean my flues … Read more

When I Get Home

Chris Elliott 2018 (Spoken) Dear Mum and dad and all at number twelve. When I get home The mayor and the corporation Will be waiting there for me Ill get a blooming medal And they’ll ask me back for tea Then present me with the keys So we can live at Stubbylee When I get … Read more

Night

Christine Worswick Black fingered twigs tease the moon-lit airSeducing the bats from the belfryWho dart and squeak between armies of ancient gravesEach mossy headstone guarding past secretsA bronze angel opens her feathered wingsCasting eagle shadows on a proud Celtic cross. Night holds whispers of echoing sweet voicesWaving through frosted grass, where a marble shrineIs dwarfed … Read more

Stream

Christine Worswick Pennine water flowedChurning deep toxic rainbowsPast the cotton millsNow free to gently trickleOr rage through rocks well brittle

Animals

Christine Worswick Wild wet cold and greySheep huddle, horses neighSteams flow through walls brokenBy cattle pushing gates left open Snow falls on mud and stoneIn conifer wood, a deer aloneSilently moves along tracks of nightEtched in snow, glistening and white.

Darby Walsh

Giving the pretence of a medieval Castlethe round tower its arrow-slit windowssolid oak doors front and sidecast iron studs and furniture polished in stylesagant Lions stone shields symbols of securitytwo gargoyles a dragon and a grotesque dogspit venom warding off Bacup’s evil spiritson days of quills ink and blotting papergiving customers safety and satisfactionin sixties … Read more

David Lory

Over the last ten years I have made two decisions which have completely changed my life. Five years ago my last car, a big red ford, failed its M.O.T, completely, and I began to discover public transport, after all I already had my bus pass. Free travel more or less everywhere: well sometimes, rarely on … Read more