‘Untitled’ by Marty McKenna

Ridgeline
by Ankh Spice

Untitled

how could i not
permanently turn the chair
to this window.

all busses and birds;
i trace the walk i give these streets
and catch the bay window

of the day-room above this city centre.
i think of her, how she clawed my gut,
left tracks as you were in spain;

this afternoon wine
tastes like a summer day
as spring softly opens.

i feel a lot
of the same emotions.
now i’m the lucky one,

sat high in the permanently turned chair
by the twenty first floor window.

a name came up in work today,
it sparks more memories
of sunsets, snow and the song
by laura marling, he played me.

‘i’ll never forget this’ i said
and he replied ‘i’ll never forget
the purple sunset you showed me’.


Marty McKenna is an independent Irish poet, born in Tyrone, now living and writing in Belfast. Marty works for the Belfast Trust and has poems published in both online and print journals. He is currently submitting work for publication from his forthcoming chapbook ‘silent stigma, loud leaf’. It contains poems about living with schizophrenia.


Ankh Spice is a sea-obsessed, queer-identified poet from Aotearoa. His work has been widely published internationally, with several poems nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and one chosen as a winner of the Poetry Archive’s WorldView 2020 competition. You’ll find him and a lot of sea photography on Twitter @SeaGoatScreams or on Facebook @AnkhSpiceSeaGoatScreamsPoetry.