To read the latest issue, click 'Issues by year' in the menu above

We wait beside a gaudy carousel
of other people’s cases – lives packed tight
in dazzling pinks, brash blues, a yellow shell,
this multi-coloured medley rainbow-bright
and redolent of sun and turquoise sea.
They’ll hold Hawaiian shirts’ bold prints, we guess,
all I-don’t-give-a-damn and Look-at-me!
Their colours bellow holiday success.

And round they roll, the unclaimed (until claimed)
vibrant and joshing all the muted bags,
sharing the jokes in raucous voices aimed
at lesser luggage, grey and beige as rags.
And ours is one of those and so we wait.
The holiday? Fantastic! Brilliant! Great!