the first time we kissed    blossom
in my eyes his mouth my fists his hair
blossom in our knees and lungs
the little purses of my ovaries    blossom
everywhere    sudden as April
I lifted my arms like branchlets
round his neck    a collar of blossom
this is how angels appear on earth I thought
grafting my chest to his    breasts full
of blossom    behind us the city
sang seasonless music    sirens&traffic
we didn’t care    stood on tiptoes
bodies to the sun    faces of blossom
we’d been waiting so long in the dead
of childhood    so bare-boned and tender
any rough wind could have snapped us
but now    brave saplings    we pressed
our mouths together    as if we alone
had been tasked with bringing spring
and her gorgeous undoing to the world

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Autumn 2024

Issue 109

The Autumn 2024 issue includes three new poems by featured author Ian Duhig, as well as new work by Liz Berry, Mimi Khalvati, Pascale Petit, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, and Kathleen Jamie. This bumper issue also introduces a vibrant offering of prose with Vidyan Ravinthiran on the poetics of memory and displacement. Our interviews section finds Imtiaz Dharker in conversation with Benjamin J. Larner. The reviews section contains criticism by Declan Ryan, Godelieve de Bree, Rishi Dastidar, and more.
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