Apertures
Sidekick Advent Calendar 2017



25



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Previous Days



I will make of thee a great nati

nation of sailors and inventors

ndon 2012, ‘Inspire a generatio

so cocky about itself as it used

hainsmokers ‘Don’t let me dow

f I could tell you how sorry I a

taking control of these borders

ummer 2016, here’s the lesson:


Andrea Tallarita


dle had been polished until

ripping through the seams.

waddling clothes?” “I bet yo

een.” “Virginal, my ass,” Sal

hhord. “Bah! Hum along, you

ple. She rested her hand on th

ip up, notes fluttering like a tr

her and higher. “Like honey,”


Peg Duthie






better when the music is

centre stage, is a physical

manifestation of a, so much

more than that, a

frilly jukebox of

exploration frippery

disguised as meaning as

ostentation as profound as


Rishi Dastidar


The tense revisited. Better

shrift, shroud, count a pain

nfettered. Trails turn back

now juddery, crass & cross

up, side down ... Delineated

line, a crease in the surface

could be referred to as sky

Such un/intentional gain


Linda Black







The room, a dense blue

under a thick canopy of

pictures of the Virgin M

a small set of drawers i

s hooded by a mosquito

two girls are folded into

sheets and things on the

single mattress, singing.


Andrea Mbarushimana



Artless there wanders a

person in weary dress

troubled in captivity here

shall it rest the sovereign

state love-pulsed in stars

ancient courses and cycles

fixed into heavenly space

echoing what call it creates


Desmond Swords






and then how the more I

is full of dead ends and

work are just bright lights

Vegas is off-putting to

I just mean that when the

and anything abandoned

me sad but it’s part of the

try and avoid these holes


Chrissy Williams


Carefully read all the instru

Firstly, and with great stea

Secondly, and from a glass

Twenty-four pearl droplets

Thirdly, sieve through a m

Do not stir. Wait until disp

Cover tightly. Place the pot



Phil Monks






kitchen, my feet. You talke

buds in my shoulders twist

sell shampoo. Walk natural

balance, like champagne th

bland, blond, worth a look

lemon, ice, long low kiss

get sad, practice flight cont

honeyed drinks, adman’s d


Rose Cook




Matt Haigh






hed clods slide through cracks

into the cluttered carcass.


agines slow-melting pin block,

key frame, shank and flange,

atter of hammers and damper,

ints of bridge pins, hitch pins,

and the bones of strings.


Roberta James











hen the uncles with puce

faces took off their jacke

unts’ pink slip straps slid

lying ants come up from

oroccans are playing car

vements are learning the

songs of fading footstep

emory takes it or leav


Phil Madden














measure the quick breath

what might not be behind

Gamesters at play; cunning

their traps with subtle skill

courage, and thus planning

danger, death, love, disap-

any of these might respond

heard inside, and the door


Abigail Parry











I noticed your beard. Blue

yes, but something more

impossible

rprised me. The chance of

atoms

the dark of space, in the

beginning explain it? The

pull, the gravity of


Lesley Sharpe






Gift in the mouth and take

measurement of the m1

talonid. Behind the M1

metacone not quite as tall

as the paracone cuts to

wear and tear the

pinecone a prominent wear

surface says white wish


Julia Rose Lewis


times I can’t get enough

them sliced with egg at

ed on my toast at lunch on

my salad in the evening

on my lover’s abdomen

metimes I take my

ammer them into my ears

Theresa May comes on


Rob Walton








Astra Papachristodoulou


ear! Oh dear! I shall be to

r butter had stopped his w

wish I hadn’t cried so muc

ouse, do you know the wa

lip through a keyhole strid

t’s the mouth that first app

hose are not the right word

secret kept from all the res


Richard Westcott














It is 7:32 in Redhill on a Sunda

yes it is and there is a small stac

boy at the foot of the bed and he is

saying Lady Di’s died and I

him with a Princess as mothers

do with small, staccato boys

and as I’m waking from the

daze I say How? and he says In


Jill Munro


the empty fields, plough

precisely angled, row on

g the lines of trenches

ter year they come

e furrows where the whe

enriched by iron, blood

nly, part of a furrow see

g, chasing , brown agai


Sandra Horn






awake, a shivering bubble

in a spirit level. It expands

puffer fish, scales poised in

a bowl you are hungry to

operate. Then: a chance of

stillness. Today, a seizure

meal. A sorbet headache

snowfall, the sheer cost of


James Midgley


It ferments from oak to

hundred year old mother

Smell it changing my

virus would order us

for one ciao and down

Atomic level,

eternal

I said to my body (my body


Claire Crowther






dropped by on christmas e

the tops of the houses to no

fat lips round the black tree

sucking them down to spin

like holes in the cushion of

that night, like saliva, dripp

y thick with the madness o

all like old sweets, together


Polly Atkin


I will live in the Past, the

re. The Spirits of all Three

ill not shut out the lessons

me I may sponge away the


caught the spectral hand. It

was strong in his entreaty.

spirit, stronger yet, repulse


Claire Trévien