t-boy brotherhood (for Jay)
by Louie Rudge
i’ll tell you something/ i hated myself
til i met you/ saw the sun lift you out
of your boots/ it’s not fair, so many of us
wanting to die in the dark because them lot
keep blocking the sun/ i’ll tell you something/
we should sack this shit off, you and me/ i know
a lake/ we could swim right to its centre/ scream
till the shadows grow wings and fly out of our mouths
see? i knew the water would hold
us/ see? how the sweet golden reed
takes our hands/ natural
as rivers and rain
come on then and let’s go dancing/ tell everyone
we’re brothers
HONEYLAND
by Arlo Kean
I want to tell you about the pomegranate trees, how they hung proud
camouflage green. About the hermit crabs hiding along the shoreline,
how we crouched, pelvis to ankle-bone, sifting through salt and pepper
sand grains, jagged shells and pebbles as smooth as your cheeks.
About how summer is the season of abundance. How many cucumbers
did we grow that year? Miraculous, spiky, pickle-pubescent dildos;
skin crystallising sweat into salt flakes; pimento-stuffed olives
eaten by the jar. I want to tell you about the lakes and the cicada song,
about the sun that set clouds on fire and the rain that turned us up-
side down, but instead I say surely, this isn’t natural. Our neighbour who
gave us Rakija shots when we arrived told us it hadn’t rained in months
but for us the paving stones burst open, the wind herded rocks and lured
sludge to the paths, boats in Polače bay became constellations
of electrostatic sparks against the sea.
Small Town
by Marc Chamberlain
I have fended it off too long
to forgive such silence.
A Fanta can sings clt clat clt-clt.
The curb cradles the can
as the city shields creation.
I do not pick it up,
the only music. Forgive me.
Chloe Elliott is our guest editor for issue 11.0 and 11.5. She is a winner of the 2022 New Poets Prize as well as the 2020 Creative Future Writers’ Award. Her writing features in Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, bath magg, Bedtime Stories for the End of the World, Magma, The North and Strix, amongst others. Her pamphlet ‘Encyclopaedia’ is published with Smith|Doorstop, and her micro chapbook ‘Dreamsimulation’ is with The Braag. She is currently studying for an MPhil in History of Art at the University of Cambridge.
Louie Rudge is an emerging trans poet based on the River Lea, London. They have been a Roundhouse Poetry Slam finalist and Tony Craze Award finalist.
Arlo Kean is a writer/creative currently based in East London. Their work has been featured by t’ART press, Ink Sweat & Tears and they have work forthcoming in fourteen poems’ eff-able anthology.
Marc Chamberlain is a poet and poetry critic. His work has been published in titles including The Hudson Review, Magma and The Times Literary Supplement. He is a creative writing PhD candidate at Durham University, writing poetry and developing a critical thesis on the poet John Wieners. His work draws extensively on concepts in contemporary queer theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis.