Size / / /

Content warning:



They came in uniforms to protect themselves from damp days: raincoats hunched over their shoulders, flat-caps, curls hidden under patterned scarves. Every morning they turned up, hungry for a bunch of bananas, a pound of satsumas, or a bag of potatoes to roast, boil, or steam. She was suited in trousers—rose silk. She was sheltered by a cream mac, golf-umbrella, leather gloves. I had my red apron on. The rain popped beads on my forehead. Her look was completed with thick face-powder, red lipstick, and layered mascara. My regulars were made-up with crows-feet, pimples, and laughter lines. Those apples were fresh in that day. But she wouldn’t buy a pound, nor half a pound, not even a quarter. She picked up one. Single. Apple. She stroked it like you would a new lover’s cheek. It was the reddest of them all. It was the biggest, the roundest, and the juiciest. I felt robbed.



Claire Smith’s poetry has recently appeared in Ink, Sweat & Tears, Riddled with Arrows, and Spectral Realms. She is studying for a PhD at the University of Gloucestershire. Find her on Instagram @clairesdivingfornightmares, Facebook @divingfornightmares, and at http://www.divingfornightmares.co.uk/. She lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and their spoilt Tonkinese cat.
Current Issue
4 Nov 2024

“Did you know,” the witch says, “that a witch has no heart of her own?”
Outsiders, Off-worlders {how quickly one carves out a corner of the cosmos, / claims a singular celestial body as [o u r s] in the scope of infinity}
Lunar enby folks across here
Wednesday: The 2024 Ignyte Award for Best Novel Shortlist, Part Two 
Friday: A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon 
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Issue 2 Sep 2024
Issue 26 Aug 2024
Load More