A hot summer’s day on the estate, tar-lines
softening in the blistering sun. Constructing
triangles with ice-pop sticks, we meld the corners
with our new liquorice glue and whip them
like frisbees from between our fingers,
to watch them ride the warm silent air,
twisting and dipping until they crash and split
like atoms, sticks splayed. I throw one
and it takes off, rising sharply as though from a sling,
then stalls like a cough and bounces off
the windscreen of a cornering car. Sliding
to a stop, the driver jumps out, engine left running.
I am already gone, scooting down the side-passage
of our house. He lopes up the steps, pounds on the door.
No answer at first, just the peripheral view
of a net-curtain settling. He looks up at the windows,
they hold their silence. He shuffles self-consciously
on the step. My mother opens the door, her small frame
standing tall in the doorway, her face suitably sullen.
The man is shouting about what I have done,
while my mother examines the chips in her fingernails.
He demands to see me as if it were his right
to exact some revenge. My mother seems to grow taller
in the darkened hallway, as I appear sheepishly
from beneath her housecoat. He stretches to grab me,
she pushes me back, takes one step forward and explains,
that while she is aware her son is young and reckless,
he does not need to feel this anger to know
that he is wrong. Fear will teach him nothing.
The man harrumphs and walks away. I catch
his last regretful glance from the driver’s seat,
knowing that, for me, this is not over yet.
Winner of the Trócaire/Poetry Ireland and Poems for Patience competitions, Maurice Devitt has been nominated for Pushcart, Forward and Best of the Net Prizes and been runner-up in the Cúirt New Writing Prize, Interpreter’s House Poetry Competition and the Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition. He published his debut collection Growing Up in Colour with Doire Press.
Yorkshirewoman Louise Wilford has had over 100 poems and short stories published and has won or been shortlisted for several competitions, most recently the £750 Arts Quarterly Prize and the MereFest Poetry Prize. She is currently nearing the end of a Masters degree in Creative Writing with the Open University, and is currently working on a novel inspired by The Tempest, while trying to process why the world appears to be falling apart.
Ted Mc Carthy is a poet and translator living in Clones, Ireland. His work has appeared in magazines in Ireland, the UK, Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia. He has had two collections published, ‘November Wedding’, and ‘Beverly Downs’. His work can be found on 
Jessica
Ben Banyard lives in Portishead, near Bristol, UK. He’s the author of a pamphlet, Communing (Indigo Dreams, 2016) and a full collection, We Are All Lucky (Indigo Dreams, 2018). He blogs and posts mixtapes at 
Julia Molloy is a short story writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming at The Fiction Pool, Fictive Dream, Crack the Spine, STORGY, Platform for Prose and Riggwelter Press. Her work was shortlisted for the Fresher Writing Prize 2016. She graduated from Lancaster University in 2015 with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing and now works at a government organisation. You can find her at 
Susan Richardson is living, writing and going blind in Los Angeles. In addition to poetry, she writes a blog called, 
Claire Sexton is a forty-something librarian living and working in London. She also writes poetry and occasionally creative non-fiction. She has been published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, Foxglove Journal, Amaryllis, Stare’s Nest, Peeking Cat Poetry and other magazines. She has just adopted a magnificent tortie cat called Queenie.
Kieran Egan lives in Vancouver, Canada. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Quills (Canada), Literary Review of Canada, Dalhousie Review (Canada), High Window (UK), Orbis (UK), Raintown Review (USA), Envoi (UK), Shot Glass Journal (USA), Qwerty (Canada), Snapdragon (USA), The Antigonish Review (Canada), Acumen (UK), Canadian Quarterly and The Interpreter’s House (UK); also shortlisted for the John W. Bilsland Literary Award, 2017 and for the TLS Mick Imlah prize 2017.
Rachel is a London-based poet. She was previously a poetry editor for the Mays Anthology and a Young Producer with Poet in the City. Her poetry can also be found on the Poetry Society website, in the Dawntreader and Kindling journals, and unpredictably at live events around London.
Ann Christine Tabaka was born and lives in Delaware. She is a published poet, an artist, a chemist, and a personal trainer. She loves gardening, cooking, and the ocean. Chris lives with her husband and two cats. Her poems have been published in numerous national and international poetry journals, reviews, and anthologies.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. Her poem ‘A Rose For Gaza’ was shortlisted for the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition 2014. This and many other poems have been widely published on line and in print publications. Find her at 
Kate Garrett is a writer, mother, editor, wife, history buff, and amateur folklorist. Her work is published here and there online and in print, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her most recent books are
Foxglove Journal 