ISSUE 03 SAMPLE POEMS

Arlene Ang
Cordon Bleu

Their mother called every night cordon bleu.
She drank. For as long as seven days, she managed
to hold down a job washing dishes, like nausea.
The Catholic nuns educated her well. They taught her
Agnus Dei—which means things could be worse.
Like an orphanage. She reads the newspaper
every day. She listens to the radio from upstairs.
What is the upper class, she wants to know, if not
sleeping on the top bunk? She lets her children
steal what they can from the world. She locks herself
in a one-room flat. They enter like cats, bringing in
slaughter. Her hand wrinkles their hair. She lets them
take their turns on the bunk bed. When she passes
out, the green parquet freezes her cheek for a kiss.

Alistair Noon
Spacewalking

When spines hit concrete, movement doesn’t cease:
the fingers of the audience deflect
each others’ eyes to windows they suspect
have opened onto airy stairs. Police
lazily scrub the street’s red grease
with broom and tree-bed earth. Medics detect
no beat, no breath, no beat again, have checked
this tired mid-summer has revoked its lease.

Moonrise by day. This astronaut avoids
the ambulance’s urgent trolley but
will take the grey van’s slow, veiled bunk. The throb
of veins now in official polaroids.
Ignition. No siren. The door slots shut.
A dog trots off with a glove in its gob.

For a full list of published issues, see the order page.

CURRENT

Issue 03

£4

In the UK (free p&p):

overseas (+ £1.20 p&p):

Poems from:

Arlene Ang, Annie Bien, Jeff Calhoun, Anthony DiMatteo, Brent Fisk, Fred Johnston, Matt Merritt, Derek Motion, Steve Mueske, Alistair Noon, Chris Powici, Dave Rowley, Carolyn Srygley-Moore, Jon Stone, Mark Terrill and Emily Tesh.

Artwork from:

Alex Eckman-Lawn (cover), Harmony Becker and Asad T. Syed.

Interview with Catherine Smith.

• Send us an email.

• Join the Mimesis Kollektiv on Facebook.

• And/or at our very own forum.

ISSN 1754-1913