Cradle to Grave

Volume 12: Cradle to Grave

Buy Volume 12

Riptide Volume 12 is a vibrant collection of new short stories and poetry centred around the idea of ‘Cradle to Grave’. It features new work from established and emerging writers from across the globe, all expressing their unique take on this most human and fundamental of themes. It opens with a powerful poem from Devon-based author Marc Woodward, that considers the thread of life, ‘careless for the unravelling’ and ends with another  by Chinese-born, Canada-based poet Yuan Changming on the crow in ‘the backyard of my heart’ turning ‘white like winter washed.’ In between is a rich body of work that dips into significant moments across lifetimes and reminds us of the fleeting, but precious nature of earthly existence.

Read an extract and view issue contents below. 

Extract:

Please Be Good To Me – Emily Ruth Ford

Sami Lieberman was walking up the escalator at London Bridge station, looking at her phone, elbowing past passengers standing on the right, her tights itching from the unexpected hot weather. It was Friday evening, and the stress of the day was beginning to recede. She was thinking about the 141 she would maybe just catch, how she’d go to Hackney lido if the rain held off. She was thinking back to last weekend, when she’d gone down to Sussex to see her mother, who appeared to have aged startlingly in a short span of time; she was wondering whether they were out of dried cat food. 

Each day she marvelled at the new station. London Bridge gaped shiny and silver as the inside of a spaceship. Workers in hi-vis jackets could be spotted putting the finishing touches to beams and concourses. The gleaming caverns seemed too pristine to sully with passengers, quite unlike the dusty train halls of Sami’s childhood. Everything was different, but in a way that would be reassuring to the average British visitor, with its standard-issue shops: Prêt a Manger, Accessorize, Paperchase. Sometimes she was thrown by a closed staircase or shuttered exit, and found herself cast out onto surprising streets. 

The escalator tipped Sami off onto a dark, covered walkway that led to the buses. A blockage had interrupted the rush-hour flow of people, and in her peripheral vision she saw a group standing with suitcases, and a small, hunched figure on the outside. Engrossed in her phone, she picked up a snatch of conversation: ‘I’m not sure, we’re just visiting, have you asked the station staff?’ 

A voice replying, frayed with old age. ‘Yes, I have, I have asked. I asked two gentlemen back there and they told me to go left and left again, and now I’m here, and I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.’ Indignation failed to mask the speaker’s anxiety. 

Sami looked up. An elderly woman stood talking to four tourists, who smiled at her apologetically. A discussion had been had. The old woman was lost and had asked for directions. The tourists did not know where to send her. 

Sami considered whether to intervene. The 141 was about to leave, and she hated to miss it, even though she had nowhere in particular to be. Since moving to London, rushing had become a permanent state. Sami thought for a second and carried on past, towards the buses. Then she glanced back, to where the tourists were shuffling their feet, as if to say they had done all they could. The old woman looked around helplessly. She had short tufts of white hair and bottle-top glasses that made her eyes look buggy. She was very old, in her late eighties at least. Maybe ninety. She carried a black holdall and wore a shapeless rain-jacket dotted with pockets, unsuited to the radiant weather. She had on baggy grey trousers and comfortable, old-lady shoes. 

Sami sighed and walked towards her. It would only take a few seconds. 

Table of Contents

Foreword – Sally Flint & Virginia Baily v 

The Thread – Marc Woodward 3 

Crossing the Bar – Linda Cracknell 4 

Please Be Good To Me – Emily Ruth Ford 11 

Cigarette Kisses – Ben Dickenson Bampton 24 

The Beggar’s Song – Habib Mohana 28 

Flow and 38 Geriatric Prima Gravida – Kim Squirrell 39 

The Names of my Mother, Insomnia & Driving to England – Anthony Wilson 40- 42 

Fishing with Olivia, Picture by the Lake (1957) & The Boar – Marc Woodward 43-45 

A Resting Place – James Turner 46 

The Big RIP & The Priest Invited Everybody Up – Andy Brown 48-49 

Dayshift – Gillian Barker 50 

The Persistent Soul – Wendy Brandmark 51 

Don’t Ever Bring Me Fish – Clare Weze 58 

Ella G in a Country Churchyard – Dan Brotzel 68 

Beware of the Bull – David Gaffney 74 

The Upturned Bowl – Cassandra Passarelli 80 

Two Crows and My Crow – Yuang Changming 88 

List of Contributors 89