A new edition of Stephen Bone's first collection In The Cinema ( Playdead Press 2014 ) was published in 2025. His most recent work has appeared in Black Nore Review, ROSA, Snakeskin and The Spectator.

Stephen Bone

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Waking Early

I walk outside shoeless,
as if entering a sacred place.

Breathe in the garden's air
still faintly incensed with stocks.

Nurse myself with the dew soaked quiet.
When abruptly

from somewhere unseen –
perhaps from the yew or sycamore –

a blackbird finds in its throat
a glimmer of first light.