The whole neighbourhood had expired. Only a few houses were still standing, all on their final exhale. ‘They did warn us,’ said Grandpa. ‘Told us the average lifespan of a…

Underwater you can’t hear much—you can’t hear Mom and Dad arguing after you’re supposed to be asleep, you can’t hear your mother crying in the kitchen over a pot of…

Mabel arranges the slabs of opaque cod caught fresh from the River Wear. Places them in circular patterns on a bed of ice flakes. Her shoulder blades tense, feeling Da’s…

This morning I’m out on my walk and dictating this pome to Siri and simultaneously thinking about how Siri is Iris backwards, which is what the human girl I once knew named Siri used to…

I saw you in a peach yesterday. Fuzzy, first moustache, pink flesh, smelling so fresh. And yet, back then, you seemed like a man to my girl: tall, muscular, strong.…

Snowdrops, crocuses, primroses, daffodils. Frogspawn in the pond. Butterflies, bumblebees and ladybirds, lighter mornings, April showers. Brightly coloured Easter eggs tumbled in a basket, spring lamb for lunch. Sticky buds,…

Shauna May lives by the river with her two parakeets. Her work has been published in various journals, including Stodgy and the Toiler’s Review and she is currently working on…

A far-off tractor hums as we set out through the field. Since her last flying visit I’ve thought only of her. Now she’s back, I don’t know what to say.…

Citizen X rides the subway, armed with an eloquent, steady hand. Lost in their screens, the other commuters don’t notice the thin man swaying in the aisle, one hand clamped…

A week before kindergarten starts, the school sends an updated safety protocol. All students will be outfitted with bulletproof shields. They will be taught how to hold them over their…

The day he vanished I saw him on the shuttle home like always; nodded, no chat. No-one chats after a fourteen-hour shift. The only green things in the plant are…

My maid of honor Beth and I sit next to each other on the floor, amid beads and teal in the only shaded corner of the bridal suite. We have…