Pain in My Heart by Sarah Barrington, with image above by Steev Burgess Before I left for universityMy friend Louisegot work for me, for the summer,At the recycling centre,Accounting in the offices, littered with windswept sheets of wasted paper,Amidst the incessant winking, bleeping, groaning lorries unloading on the weighbridge.In Portakabins,In…

Different Perspectives by Mike Gallagher Different pictures in my Sunday paper:Morant Bay, Jamaica, Seventeen Fifties,in close order a line of black womenfile up a ship's gangway, overladenpanniers of coal balanced on their heads.From an upper deck, a white overseerlooks down on the scene; no doubt, he fumeswhen the woman slips,…

The Cut of those Cold, Sharp Stars by Emma Lee I don't think it's to do with temperature.I feel every piece of grit, every puddle, the cold.There won't be a bus for another hour.I'm used to the cold. Used to shiver like a child,but now I don't even dream of…

The Hurdle Race by Paul Francis The Guru says that every kidshould run the same race that he did.He wants lanes narrow, hurdles tall.A course where most contestants fallmay not be sensitive or just;what matters is that it’s robust.So many ways to be assessed -the Guru knows that his is…