Skating to the Cottage by Lucy McLaughlin

the distorted glass clings to my cornea bending and fragile

I would never survive in the wild reliant on the fingernail wick instantaneous tap a trap three floors removed WORDS Hannah George (she/her) from anything real carelessly detached with only boiling water to warn me electricity invokes violence unquenchable weary rain, the fox that stared with an indelible gaze a profound interruption tothesuffocatingconcrete fragmenting fluorescent streetlight connecting disparate elements I like to deny the presence of meaning hide my thoughts in delicate pots vessels to contain the wilderness unable to grow beyond imposed boundaries let dirt and discomfort bring you to your senses we are playing with fire

allow me to reconverge in your arms while we talk about the love that hasn’t died

buried under the fat hordes of ground, in depths of the warm earth clay and breadth of dirt, verses re-done

that reeked of mould damp and rebirth

-I am telling you, the process is imminent, now is winter, and once, the spring will come, are you afraid? of all that must be done, the flowers must emerge, the earthly scent –

spurting out of the rubble one by one.

that new spectacular that the springs delivers enhances me, and I just want to vivre

I am grooming my soul soft by Tolstoy and my reason busied in the everyday fly and keeping my toenails very dainty

that is how I prepare for this love.

I hope to find as your hands gently tear me asunder

that I have been in a thousand-year-long slumber.

WORDS Emma Urbanová (she/her)

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. (T. S. Eliot – The Waste Land (I. The Burial of the Dead))

Nature is not for Everyone

WORDS Eden Dodd ( she/her)

Her feet found it first. Toes stubbed hard against something solid. Held by hurt, her eyes found it next. A brick. Bold on the pavement, forgotten by a skip. After forgiving its offence she picked it up. Fingers fumbling, colluding with the concrete, she became absorbed in the absolute.

When she got home, she walked straight up the stairs and into her room. A vase sat on the mantelpiece above her bed. The flowers in it resting their necks, tired and tortured by the ebbing evening light. Emptied of the ethereal, the vase was replaced to the mantlepiece but slightly to the right. In its place, in the centre, she places the brick.

Assertive in space and brilliantly brazen, the brick was defiant. An effigy of the (almost) eternal. Cracks colliding forming networks of weakness read instead as strength. An opus of opportunity and obstinacy. This is her new bouquet, built from clay and grit. An unapologetic aggregate of brick.

TEAM

Editors-in-Chief: Graham Peacock, Lara Delmage Editorial Coordinator: Ella Field Features Editor: Eilidh Akilade Politics Editor: Tom Hall Culture Editors: Cain Mckendry, John Tinneny Art & Photography Editor: Eilidh Wright Science & Tech Editor: Tiarna Meehan Style & Beauty Editor: Daniel Castro Creative Writing Editor: Lillian Salvatore Copy Editors: Ophelia Hazzan, Rosie Shackles, Ioulitta Triantafyllou Columnists: Bianca Callegaro, Beatrice Efimov, Lucy Fitzgerald, Julia Hegele, Kieren Mehta, Alice Millar Thompson, Deri Ronan, James Taylor, Ruth Underwood, Maya Uppal Graphics Coordinator: Nilanjana Mannaraprayil Editorial Artists: Charlotte Docherty, Yana Dzhakupova, Ella Ottersbach-Edwards, Rosie Stobbie Graphic Designers: Zachary Czerwiński (Print), Raquel Fonseca (Journal) Digital Media Coordinator: Abigail Whelan Website Manager: Janika Popova Social Media Manager: Aisha Patel Business Operations Coordinator: Lucy Nicholson Advertising Manager: Larisa Hamilton Events Managers: Hannah George, Jade Harries

Contributors

Illustrated Shoot

JAMES TAYLOR / YANA DZHAKUPOVA / JULIA HEGELE / MONIQUE JOY RARANGA / ROSIE STOBBIE / CAMERON COCHRANE / ELLA OTTERSBACHEDWARDS / DANIEL CASTRO / CHRIS TIMMINS / MATILDA EKER / JORDAN MCKIBBENS / CHRISTINA KYRIAKIDOU / JANE HERBELIN / EILIDH AKILADE / KIEREN MEHTA / LUCY MCLAUGHLIN / TIARNA MEEHAN / CHARLOTTE DOCHERTY / ABIGAIL WHELAN / EMMA URBANOVÁ / HANNAH GEORGE / EDEN DODD

CHARLOTTE DOCHERTY / YANA DZAHKUPOVA / ELLA OTTERSBACH-EDWARDS / ROSIE STOBBIE / MAGDALENA NOWAK / DANIEL CASTRO / LARA DELMAGE / GRAHAM PEACOCK / ROBBIE CAMPBELL / BECKY JENKINS / DEBBIE LUI / FARA ODUKALE