by Rosalie Hendon

Your pale speckled body emerges
You perch weightless
on the arching leaves of the purple heart
 
Mantis and I, taking the air
companionably sharing
the September morning on my porch.
The air humid,
the sun just brushing the railing.
 
You fascinate me
Your praying forearms
bending backwards
Your knobby head, almost feline
The rise and fall of your low belly
Delicate antenna, almost too thin to see
 
You move slowly, feeling each foothold
Forward and back, forward and back
your body shifts
As if you’re gathering momentum
 
I sat with you, watched your slow motion
your intentional grace
for 30 minutes,
until the phone rang
and my computer beckoned–
All those emails and meetings
to attend to
 
As the sun grew low, I came out
to find you on the railing,
three-quarters of a porch away.
Is that how you spent six hours?
If so, I wonder which of us
had the more productive day?

Rosalie Hendon (she/her) is an environmental planner living in Columbus, Ohio. Her work is published in Change Seven, Pollux, Willawaw, Write Launch, and Sad Girls Club, among others. Rosalie is inspired by ecology, relationships, and stories passed down through generations.

by Peter Mitchell

For sale: old dairy farm, Collins Creek Road, Kyogle.
Don & I inspect the ancient rooms & dairy.
In the sunroom, Doug & Barb sit on an old leather lounge.
Across from them, we sprawl on old club chairs.

In Collins Creek Road, an old dairy farm is for sale.
‘He’s useless, y’know.’ Don looks my way.
Across the room, we sprawl on old club chairs. 
Barb & Doug glance at each other, at me.

Don shakes his head. ‘He can’t use a chain-saw’. 
The storm words ache my head. Again!
Doug & Barb exchange looks, frown.
Ach, ach, ach! A crow warns, flies away.

The chain-saw’s teeth bite my shoulders.
Barb’s eyes fire-green; Doug raises his eye-brows.
Don smiles, his mouth a frozen grimace.
Outside, we walk. The dry grass cracks like broken egg-shells.    

Living in Lismore on Widjabul/Wia-bul Country, Nation, Peter Mitchell (he/his), writes across all narrative forms. His writing appears in international & national print platforms. He's authored two poetry chapbooks, Conspiracy of Skin (Ginninderra Press, 2018) & The Scarlet Moment (Picaro Press, 2009). Conspiracy of Skin was Highly Commended in the 2019 Wesley Michel Wright Prize for Poetry. ​

by Angela Arnold

would need...what?
 
absolute tigertimes, real and total
and burning?
 
mock shots at midday, broad daylight
stunning?
 
a taste of blood in your porridge?
 
a thousand thoughtsworth of silence
in a standing wave
 
that, simply, your heart can't, won't,
argue away?
 
what?
 
salt on the tip of your soul?

Angela Arnold (she/her) lives in North Wales, UK, and is also an artist and a creative gardener. Her poems have appeared in print magazines, anthologies and online, in the UK and elsewhere. Her collection In|Between looks at ‘inner landscapes’ and relationships (Stairwell Books, 2023). She enjoys her synaesthesia and language/s and is currently learning Welsh.