Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

After Mária Ferenčuhová

a bundle of bones is sucking the sweet last relic of rain

from the earth

as though it could grow back the proof of their bodies

just like that

pitch tents of skin to shelter hopes and dreams

not this rumour of rot  swallowing everybody’s

tongues

ii.

the spill of the sun  kissed the earth in daggers

a gridlocked romance

tracing wounds that won’t heal but howl

like wolves

through a forest

that shrank to spindle

and shadow

empty pockets of sky  and dusty fall-out

as food

iii.

earth lounged  on its axis of ripple

and ruin

and could barely remember which way

was up

flooded hearts until  they were no longer fit

for human habitation

iv.

night slipped  into hot  sweats and recurrent bad dreams

the stars were escaping and galaxies snagged their silk

in the gaps

the moon sulked  and said that hide and seek

was no fun alone

v.

parallel selves  reared their heads in tandem

like  woodworm  clawing up through

the cracks

claimed the milk  of the  dawn as their  medicine

only to make  the same mistakes we did

vi.

parcels of flesh turned up knocking on

closed doors

hoping to redirect to a future  where green was still

a colour

vii.

witness of, not survivor of when life as we know it scorches to a

full stop.