Issue 32

Popshot Magazine

The illustrated magazine of new writing

Popshot Magazine2 min read
Editorial
Growth is all about renewal, rejuvenation and reaching new heights. As we emerge from a winter and spring of lockdowns and fear, however normal things may feel, we will have undeniably changed and grown. Having failed to get a haircut between the fir
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Popshot Magazine
Cover illustration by: Freya Lowy Clark freyalowyclark.com Editor: Matilda Battersby Art Editor: Lauren Debono-Elliot Group Editor: Steve Pill Publisher: Simon Temlett Distributed by: Seymour Distribution Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons ■
Popshot Magazine4 min read
The Opener
Bobby tossed the stuffed chihuahua between his bare hands, suboxone in his right coat pocket and a picture of Alyssa at two months in his left. Should have worn gloves, he knew. Cape Cod winters tug the cold out of bones. The bus depot, of course, wa
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Sunflowers
We used to race sunflowers when I was small:would plant the seeds finger-deep in rich black mudwould crush egg-shells and scatter them roundthe burgeoning shoots (mine nought-point-five inches taller)to deter the mouthing slugs, to keep the flowers l
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Whale Baby
Maybe, I will be brave and you will start growing in me,and all I can picture of that is whale calf in a whale gut,from an old picture book about babies. It is so surreal,the thought of a great cage of ribs, a huge round head,fin-hands, tail-toes, al
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Compost
A thumb of root ginger. A wodge of Victoria sponge.Apple cores, tulip petals, hydrangea crowns, radishes.Shells, peelings, scrapings, halves. Celery stems, limes,onions, rocket poured from vacuum packs, Cutsto rescue ailing economy, inks bleeding thr
Popshot Magazine11 min read
Desk Flowers
Only when an aloe vera the size of a garden shed burst through the roof did anyone realise what was going on. The office block was empty and unremarkable, another mass of concrete and double-glazing; not the kind of place we expected to see popping o
Popshot Magazine2 min read
At The Brain Salon
Let’s push past brown roots and dandruff to the skull. We’ll crack it open easy-like, and peel back the meninges, slow and careful, slower still. There it is now, there it is: the precious brain, all electric threads that pulse and twist. I can tell
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Growth
They are divine, these breasts of mine,They flourish every week.Securely cupped, their size is uppedSuch roundness do I seek.I have a reason for my whims,That they be large or huge,In low cut dress, I must impressAnd so to subterfuge!With all my hear
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Full Bloom
Sunflower childLook at you!Your beauty realized-Finally, in full bloom.You shine so brightWhether day or nightIlluminating those around you.Starlight loveCelestial beautyReclaim your birthrightYou. Are. worthy.What radiance!What glow!This was always
Popshot Magazine1 min read
As I Stay In, My Hair Grows Out
I settle into my stone fort home.In here, I’m safe, but my mind can roam.My hair grows and spreads as I dreamOf mountains, stars, experiences extreme.Cascading over my shoulders, between my thighs,Hair tickles memories: open lips, lover highs. Tendri
Popshot Magazine2 min read
First Taste
Mosquito coils and sweat. Beer breath. Salty wind crossing the sea. Cushions unwashed. Nutty pad Thai forgotten in a kitchen pan. Sun cream plastered over the only kid whiter than me, a freckled disaster with puss-blister shoulders. Weed everywhere,
Popshot Magazine2 min read
Sprouting
The feel of them wakes me up. They’re on the lower lids of my eyes, where it’s wet and soft. I bring my fingertip to my left eye. I hardly touch it, and the pain is unbearable. The blinds let in the morning and the light trickles down in crumpled str
Popshot Magazine11 min read
Before And After
I told the window cleaner story for years: first to friends at dinner parties, then to strangers. It was a perfect slapstick moment. We inherited the house in the suburbs from David’s grandmother after she died in her bed from a long illness. No one
Popshot Magazine2 min read
Flesh And Blood
The dead eyes of the herring, lampreys, and mackerel seem to fix on me. Their bodies rainbow-gleam on beds of hay, piled high, bearing a whiff of the sea. “Fresh fish! Have ye some fresh fish!” The seller is trying to catch my attention, but I always
Popshot Magazine5 min read
The Arctic Tern
It took two months of wishing for the wings to grow. After standing in front of his mirror each night, scrunching his shoulder blades together, and hoping with all his might, the boy woke one morning to feel the new appendages smushed unpleasantly be
Popshot Magazine10 min read
Seedlings
When we were fifteen our mums got us jobs at the garden centre for the summer. We were too young to work the tills but Jules did it anyway because she had a knack for persuasion; she was also the type of person you made exceptions for. I stocked the
Popshot Magazine1 min read
For What Comes Next
Naked branches prick the skyThe sky is greyThe clouds aren’t shyToday and yesterday the sameLocked in, frozen, unallowed.We wait wait waitFor the ground to thaw, the trees to bloom,The sun to dissipate the gloomThe moonto pass through one more cycleN
Popshot Magazine2 min read
The Measure Of A Being
A scale can tell what’s heavy, what’s light. What’s hollow, what’s sincere. What’s a lie, what could be one of the truths. The puny scale in Bhaga’s store could assess all this and more, but it no longer did. Five years ago, while being towered over
Popshot Magazine9 min read
The Centre
Someone should cut this grass, Rob thought, trudging over the wasteland. He didn't know who the ‘someone’ should be, because he had no idea who owned the sea of long grass he had to cross every morning on his way home from work. He felt the grass was
Popshot Magazine1 min read
To My Father
Who is in a plant pot in the garden of my mother’s bungalow Not for you the chill of the dank graveyard,morning mists rolling in over yew and stone.You never believed the claptrap of religionso it’s fitting there’s no cross above your head. Are you h
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Reservation Meadows
Bollard-side springingin a beach of road dusthanging on the reservation edge. Stubborn seeds unstoppablein every nook and siding. Planted in the wind, goaded into livingthe world is so much wider than life. Grains creak like iceover a lake. Splinteri
Popshot Magazine11 min read
Cook-off
I left my apartment and climbed the stairs. Each floor closer to the top was warmer than the last. I stepped out onto the roof. In the centre was a makeshift stage with two temporary cooking stations. Max, the building’s landlord, was currently plugg
Popshot Magazine2 min read
Belly To Belly
The moon hung in the sky like a dead fish in poisoned waters. My eyeball was gritty, one side of my face mashed into the foot of my bed, upper body clutching the whole duvet in a wrestle of defeat. I’d woken because my feet, pointing at but not touch
Popshot Magazine1 min read
House Sparrow
I saw a strange thingin March before winter's blanket lifted.Still to plume into wieldy monochromes,a House Sparrow of fledgling fluff, lattefoams and breathy grey, too early usheredfrom the nest, to the garden, showed no joyin the erratic company of
Popshot Magazine1 min read
The Next Sentence
In a cage, languagein the tongue-form becomesunknowably stillas the bird in doubt.The swallow brings a tastejust short of the void, and tonguelike a moon movesa wave of no language.Such a small and superstitious muscle—large enough to know itselfwell
Popshot Magazine3 min read
Endnotes
8 – Holly Kybett Smith is a writer from Portsmouth. Her work has previously appeared in the New Gothic Review. You can find her on twitter @h_kybettsmith. 10 – Elizabeth Gibson is a Manchesterbased poet and performer inspired by the city, nature and
Popshot Magazine1 min read
Illustrators
Alex Hahn alexhahnillustrator.com Andrea Šafaríková andreasafarikova.com Cinta Fosch cintafosch.com Connie Noble connienoble.co.uk Daniel Macleod danielmacleodillustration.com Dilianny Espinoza diliannyespinoza.com Emily Louka emilylouka.com Emma Thr

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