Sarah Jarrett, JLM Morton, Alan Magee, Sharon Johnson

CHIMERAS
JLM Morton
I was the warm light warming
an orange in a wooden bowl,
haloing fruit with the softness
of white mould and green
radiating from the pedicel
where the flower grew.
Seven years since the last fruit
dropped − a whole cycle
now calling to the surface
to remind me
the pith and fibres of my brain
still run with chimeras of the unborn,
cells sent on a journey from their fully formed hearts
to mine.
If the constant turnover of cells
is how we heal, must we conceal our scars?
I twined and pressed the glittering pollen
and the honey suckle vines between cardboard
to remember, but
the imprints live within me —
the only shapes
that can hold a womb
once filled with the weight
of an orange.
LARRY’S SHOES
Alan Magee
Larry’s soft shoes –
Soft and ruby red –
Were made by his father.
Two eyelets punched in each shoe –
Stitched, straw leather soles –
Ruby laces – three inches long.
Small shoes placed by the hearth –
Shown to neighbours, who called in –
Played with by brothers and sisters.
In time, Larry’s shoes,
Wrapped in white silk,
Were placed inside a white box,
And placed on his mother’s dresser –
Between her mirror and her beads.
AFTER THE CEMETERY
Sharon Johnson
I drive in circles, end up at the lake. Find
our bench occupied. I slouch the shoreline.
Eavesdrop on clumps of seaweed. Hear the horizon
sigh into a smudge. Watch the light fray. Soon
the sky falls—shreds of coral, lemon, lavender,
cerise, topaz begging for an audience. About to ask
the wind to sing with me, the wind speaks first:
The silence you will die in is gathering now.
Sarah Jarrett's work thrives on the art and processes of transformation using collage and painting to breathe new life in an existing idea. She loves to explore the human relationship with nature, themes of light and dark, incorporating vintage and contemporary styles. Sarah is a visual storyteller hoping to create an emotional resonance with the viewer and a sense of magic and wonder.
JLM Morton is from Gloucestershire in the west of England. Her work has appeared in Poetry Review, Rialto, Magma, Mslexia, The London Magazine, Berlin Lit, Anthropocene, Bad Lilies, Modron and elsewhere. Highly commended by the Forward Prizes, she is the winner of the Laurie Lee and Geoffrey Dearmer prizes. Her first poetry collection is Red Handed, out now with Broken Sleep Books (2024).
Alan Magee is a poet living with his family in Belfast. His poems have been published by the Community Arts Partnership NI, Apricot Press, The Galway Review, Quillkeepers Press, Nuthatch Press, Angry Gable Press and Drawn to the Light Press. Alan writes about shared human experiences, nature and mental health, with sensitivity and insight.
Sharon Johnson is a Chicago-based freelance writer. Current projects include independent and collaborative poetry in received and experimental forms. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Chicago Reader, Floating Bridge Review, Humana Obscura, Mississippi Review, Sundog Lit ("Best of the Net" nominee), and The Hyacinth Review. A graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Sharon has studied creative writing through Bennington College and UCLA.