Robbie

Smoking a cigarette, I exhale, stuck here on my mind, a lover's face impaled, can anyone retain, that unforgiving light, the way she's famed, haunted, proud, regaled, she no longer asks why, about the time after jail, she was first to name, places where it's wise to lie, and safer still to fade, a woman beyond the pale, who beat out her time, danced around the flames, crossed uncertain terrain, laughed beneath each sky, small wonder that I failed, colours brighter than mine

Questa

Who forgets generous acts, standing by an unlit lamp, drawing fire, watching ships, are those who give always first, waiting for a scan, measured by horizons, does my husband's laughs, need a tree, a bridge, a candle, to rattle around our pan, send us money by post, we’re jobless on the tramp, throw salt at our ghosts, decant us like the sacrosanct, stamp the Catholic stamp, drunk do not let us sag, tell us to get lost, spit saliva on our plans, for you the baptised hosts, always give what you can.

Paloma

Who wants to be free, asks my lover, I do, my hearts skips a key, nothing between her and the sun, the breeze whispers on the peninsula, says she thinks we’re done, my bright intensity, bends awkward out of trouble, unhampered by serendipity, the smell of her perfume, makes me think of mother, who also played out of tune, light has a kind of density, it leaves no spaces for cover, wish I could join the Fleet, she'll stand by her ruins, places run out of love, so close to the truth, it’s hard to keep going.

Olivia

Who wants the last kiss, asks my lover, eyes raised as if nothing amiss, nowhere between us and sea, a kindly breeze on the peninsula, it makes me want coffee, her eyes full of mist, given over to watching others, nails painted and clipped, same colour in our infancy, the great light untroubled, she thinks she's a celebrity, a blinding sky resists, any hope of cover, she'll look for passing ships, places that bear no scrutiny, it's a small step to bother, her being happy, a marriage running over.

Natalia

Bending smiles to blonde seats, the kids who drink wine, laugh up from the Bleachers, a twisted smile between, wooden decks that blind, soften cool blue evenings, she sees the creep of moon, regular as the lemon night, dance sourballs in her glass, men who only want room, to enlighten their lives, love the way she loves them, but the goal, the jewel, escapes each time, only makes them drool, sikn laughter at such scenes, nothing can entwine, her great sense of being, she’s never frightened.

Maya

Absolved free of the scorn, I've wrapped her in, she passes from our home, uncertainty arrested, my letters binned, her tears trip uncontested, believe me a career is born, by making false decisions, wronging women my new crown, delivery, testimony manifest, between myself and her lips, whoever knows what’s best, they tell me nothing shorts, the rattle of wind on sill, that cannot beat bad thoughts, I pause, bitterly still, sunlight cracks the window,

Lena

You used to write then, of smoky laughter and winters, tales and all the rest, awful stories of the tenements, scrawled over by wet kisses, men who had lost everything, but made you their friend, do you want me in splinters, to read all that again, the little lines of credit, dollars dimes and dodgy business, houses lying within a sentence, nothing else but that wee pen, sunken sunlight by the river, for us far off kin, why only help to fashion, the dreams of lonely sisters, donning boots and leathers, your smudges like a siren ?