Bio

John Newson has a wide variety of interests, ranging from architecture to zoology, and a corresponding inability to focus on any single task. He writes in an attempt to achieve such focus. He lives in Wiltshire where he enjoys spending time in the countryside with his wife and two children.

John has work published or forthcoming with Hummingbird, Ekphrastic Review, Allegro, The Moth and The Lyric, among various others.

Please
sleep
daughter.
You wake birds,
foxes prick their ears,
neighbourhood cats turn restlessly,
desperate to curl away from the noise that you make
they foetus themselves and press their noses deep into their arses. I cannot do this,
my ribs will not allow the bend, nor will my conscience.
In the end I'll lift you again
and ask what ails you.
What ails you,
daughter?
Sleep,
please.