When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.
You might liken me
to a urinary tract infection,
in that my job is to prevent
truth trickling out too purely,
but you’re worried such a comparison
might lead to threatening letters
from solicitors acting for the bacilli
who’ve taken up residence
in Mrs Irondrawer’s highly thought of bladder.
Reality is I’m worse,
will not be cured by mere penicillin.
For I am a journalist,
help people forget
things those who operate me
want forgotten.
To keep my thoughts pristine
each night I pay to have my head
dipped in preservatives, claim
it back as miscellaneous.
On January 2 2014, PJ Harvey used her turn as guest editor of the Today programme to expose the realities of war, arms dealing and media complicity. The fury that followed showed how rare – and how threatening – such honesty is within Britain’s most Establishment broadcaster, says IAN SINCLAIR
ANDY CROFT welcomes the publication of an anthology of recent poems published by the Morning Star, and hopes it becomes an annual event
by Widad Nabi
The Labour Party proposal to scrap benefits for those unable to work will be debated in Parliament next Tuesday, and threatens the most vulnerable in our society. ALAN MORRISON presents some responses in poetry


