Tag: Issue 16
Four Poems | Michael Brockley
Brunette It was the year beautiful brunettes wore their hair like elaborate midnights on top of their heads. Everyday, I stifled the urge to kiss the brunette pianist who read music with brown eyes. She taught the bankers’ wives to play piano. “Chopsticks” and “Turkey in the Straw.” I listened on a bench across the […]
Two Poems | Lynn White
Time Passes The pier is still standing but it’s all that remains. No boats will tie up there again. The sea has moved away from here so there aren’t any fishermen to bring in their catch or to hang their rods over the side. The fish have left with the sea and time stands still […]
Dumebi | Aishat Adesanya | Fiction
Part 1 The two Bible-clutching Jehovah’s Witness preachers knocking on the door of House 8 on Moferere Street had no idea, but the stones that were coming for them were only stopped by what the little girl in dirtied school uniform thought was a brilliant idea. She brought her raised hand down with the rough-edged […]
To the Letter Writer(s) at the TV Licensing Office | Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim | Essay
The first time I received a letter from you in December 2021, it came in the midst of several others. It stood out with the bright red lettering that peeked from its see-through envelope. All the letters made one demand or the other. Pounds, pounds, pounds, otherwise threat, threats, threats. In fact, your threats in […]
Two Poems | Juanita Rey
THE SHAKE OF THE HEAD I’m sitting on a park bench, with paper and pen, working on a new poem. Only old men stop and ask me what I’m doing. I say, “Writing poetry. They shake their heads and move on. Then I spy this guy I know. He comes […]
On the road to Greenland | Ian C Smith | CNF
Needing respite from factories, blast furnaces, I read Laurie Lee’s As I Walk Out One Midsummer Morning yearning to walk out myself – any morning would do – also wanting some best years of my life to remember when older. With minimal skills, even less education, bank balance unbalanced, gripped in the gap between family […]