I dare not touch this little dress a dream in navy velvet stitched and smocked lest it splinter the booties too pastel, beribboned --...

sitting at the old grandmas’ table trying to ignore the pull in my thigh my twisted ankle, aching shoulder, I muse on how I got here the...

End A tube comes at the end as the end, a bowl a pillow the view: a chimney pines and rocks a line of laundry; cars round the swerve in...

"Gratitude for the slice of light rising at dawn for the bird chatter and dustmen’s trucks for even five hours of unmedicated sleep for...

Forty-five This is a respectable age to be no longer ‘just a pretty face’ no longer eyed for ‘one thing only’, there are others, now, for...

"Another Chance I never thought I’d get another chance I thought I never would but out you came tiny and perfect exhuming...

"To my twenties Cheat, liar, traitor you promised sweetness and light but like 9/11 or October 7th you terminally recalibrated me, thrust...

Small hopes I’ve swapped my kitten heels for a walking stick my false lashes for a false knee my pencil skirt for jogger pants my...

I’m not beautiful any more I’m not beautiful any more. The yellow cabbie is surprised you want me with you in New York, ‘A family man,...

"Not a peony Not a peony I, Bold magenta In lonely majesty, But rather a common daisy Plain and unremarkable; Protect me lest I be...

ageing now in my eighth decade all my dues are paid marriage and childbirth-- done grandkids and greats-- a ton friends and colleagues...

At thirty-five At midpoint in life perhaps I wonder whether this sense of nothing accomplished nothing ensured, this craving and chasing...

"dead budgie in the morning I didn’t realise, I didn’t know the husks looked like the seeds so many of them, overflowing, carpeting the...

"Houseguest Invited, you came food and warmth on the house help yourself if you need more you’ll stay nine months, won’t you? Then one...

"Afterwards Body back Uninhabited Uninhibited, Back back Striding stairs Astride stools. A belt A waist Anonymous woman No-one’s...

"Hot little butterfly I won’t let you slip through my fingers; my grey-eyed miracle I could not mourn again I’ll nurse you through the...

"Tribute From you I have learnt the truth in clichés, to count my blessings, be content with my lot, not to demand ‘why me?’ why not?...

"New normal To awaken daily to the dreaded words hutar lepharsem no six degrees of separation, we all know some of “The Fallen” so many...

"down down on his luck spent his last buck begging and borrowing to cover tomorrowing moved south of the border affairs more in order...

"duty aged flesh embittered angry, seek compassion seek affection killed the cat iron mother, too late now to learn to give where...