.the war house. by Sonja Benskin Mesher

I am not a silent poet

dug within for strength, without for vegetables.

tidy allotments  for food. primroses came by post; my father.

war was declared before me.

they said that some hid in outside toilets to avoid the bombs. there were hits in bournemouth.

some dads dug deep for shelter in the garden.  anderson, half buried.  flower beds planted with veg.

peace times, families stored their potatoes , rather than waste. rationing continued.

i remember the implications, was told the facts later.

much later.

the war house & after.

now

we dig within for solidity, solidarity, power to continue.  food is plenty.

in wales find they grew potatoes here. i have a          photograph.

I still hide under tables.

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Lesbian Flotation Aids by Scott Redmond

the curly mind linguistically innovative poetry - weird & risky

San Franciscan bookstore

Invited me invitingly to the aisle marked ‘used lesbian fiction’,

‘Used lesbian fiction’.

‘Used’. ‘Lesbian’. ‘Fiction’.

Does it mean novels and prose of lesbians who had been used?
And if so, what had they been used for?
Were they made to run on treadmills to power our banks?

Or as flotation aids for amputee otters,

Or perhaps they were used as emergency scarecrows?
No,

Probably not.

Perhaps,

It meant used in a much deeper, more oblique way,

Like used up, like chewed up, like spat out.

Beaten up by a world of discrimination, looks out of the side of the eyes

                                                            Of strangers

                                                            When hands are held in public.

By remarks of ‘oh, which one are you, the butch or the femme?’

At dinner parties up and down the social strata,

By pay gaps, and fights for marriage and cries of sins,

Perhaps the lesbians in these…

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Grenfell by Barbara Donne

I am not a silent poet

Tell me how to impose
a structure
on
disaster

..
What nouns
verbs
rhythm, rhyme

..
I have no template
I start
and the line
breaks

..
Imagine shadows
trapped in windows
shapes
who were not cut out for this
every step of stair beneath them
falling

..
No-one expects to decline
‘We will burn…
have burnt…
are burning’

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optional mathematics by A. A. Reinecke

the curly mind linguistically innovative poetry - weird & risky

Bio: A. A. Reinecke is a writer, playwright, and poet. Her likes include caffeine and the correct use of Oxford commas.

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