Social Contract by Rachel Willems
The politeness, not leaving any butter in the jam,
or jam in the butter, or shoes in the hall.
Not leaving any residue of who did...
The Teacher by Manash Bhattacharjee
To Upal DebHe wasn’t a blackboard
Framing flightless birds
Not a classroom figure
Offering the curriculum
To rows of bored facesHe sat on his bed facing
The window Van...
At Aya Sofia by Edward Lucie-Smith
Today it’s snowing, snowing
In Istanbul,
Stamboul, Constantinople,
New Rome, Byzantium.
The city has mislaid its Jews
And most of its Greeks.
The bones of its Armenians
Are long scattered.
Somewhere far...
We Wait for Poets by Manash Bhattacharjee
prophets have retired
so do not wait for yours to come to you
~ Ashraf Fayadh (translated by Mona Kareem)In our country, a prince,
Dara Shikoh, had...
Questions Concerning Aristotle’s Tomb by Manash Bhattacharjee
An archaeologist in Greece unearths Aristotle’s
Tomb; others dispute the evidence.
If Aristotle’s ideas are consulted, the archaeologist
Needs to prove, the tomb’s where he claims it,
Not...
Playing Safe | Hugo Williams
I liked not liking you much.
I liked playing safe. Not being bowled over by you
was part of the thrill.
At the King’s Palace Hotel
you couldn’t...
Poetry | The Goldfinches of Rome by Peter Anderson
Carduelis carduelis (Fringilla carduelis. Linn. 1758)Dawn on the Palatine:
planets bow out, stars pick their way
through rat-traps and incident tape.
The morning after the party...
Evening Light
Evening LightBrave bat in a bowler hat
Blood shot eyes question
What time does this light
Depart?The light descends elsewhere
Its shadow rising here
The bat changes into an...
The Lighthouse by Michael Shann
The Lighthouse
Markhouse RoadSo far from the wine-dark sea, a displaced
monument to faith and absurdityat the turn of a neat, Victorian street.
Still, the treacherous rocks...
Spotlight IV: Penned in the Margins
The London Magazine has long been a champion of emerging writers and independent publishers, stretching back to the 1950s and 60s, when young writers...
At the Nursing Home by Leland James
—inside an old man vacant by the windowHold me occasionally for the light is fading
and I can no longer see the hills that once
rose...
Spotlight V: Journals Edition | LE GUN / Hotel
The London Magazine has long been a champion of emerging writers and independent publishers, stretching back to the 1950s and 60s, when young writers...
Khuda by Manash Bhattacharjee
Many times I passed by your house
On my way to see my grandmotherI paused before the large iron gates
Expecting to catch a glimpse of...
Onion Music by Mark Fiddes
I grow lighter for you
with each striptease
from skin to skin leaving
a glimmering bulb
a milk light by your bed
for you to undress by
or find your...
Poetry | Synopsis and The Wedding Frame by Hugo Williams
SynopsisPeople are taking sedatives in boats
Going to America.
Their names drift back to me—
Hollowed out, unpronounceable.
I walk through the crowds in the arcades
And on the...
Madonna and Child by Hugh Dunkerley
Don’t believe the lies:
Joseph was a randy little sod.
That’s why we had to leave,
go back to Bethlehem
where he told his family
I was pregnant with...
Partita, 1968 by Hannah Lowe
Partita, 1968When the tabla and double bass are really moving
the raga in full swing
I think of when I used to run for hours, for...
Caries by Fiona Sampson
Little hole little well
of dark staining the lacquer
of my tooth little confessor
coming close and coming closewhy are you pursuing me
interrogator of the nerve
in its...
Towpath by Neil Burns
IThe Lagan - a muddy silt river -
Barrel of roll-tide, ribs of clean branches
Poke up water jutting. On the towpath
I glean a warm wet...
SYRIA by Ghayth Armanazi
SUFFER THE COUNTRY Suffer the curled up corpses of the tortured
Suffer the cluttered ranks of the bound and the beaten
Suffer the pleading eyes of those...
October by Lydia Towsey
OctoberPizza bruschetta gold dress Rioja
Autumn is here and Winter forgotten
Walking through town arm in arm with a lover
Moon in the sky and leaves good...
The Daylight Comes With Me by John Darwin
Leave the world alone and close the door,
seal this room from everything outside,
nothing else exists but these four walls;
we have eight hours and five...
Stripping Gaza by Manash Bhattacharjee
For Najwan DarwishA lucky three-year-old
Is Saher* Abu NamousIf Gaza didn’t explode
The world would have
Known nothing of himNow he is all in reports
One among the...
Exile by Manash Bhattacharjee
Exile“I rested my mouth on your memory”
~ Yannis Ritsos, from Diaries of ExileNight arrives like a cart
You push it with motionless hands
There is darkness
But...