Back to Life

Dry your tears. Snakeskin is back online. The firm that looks after the site tells me that there were ‘issues’ with the server. These now seem to be resolved.

Make sure you take a look at the SHORT POEMS issue, which will arrive on July 1st. There’s some brilliant stuff in it.

Where’s Snakeskin?

The Snakeskin webpage has mysteriously disappeared. I’m trying to get in touch with the firm who provides the site, but they can be elusive over weekends.

I’ve checked, and yes, I have paid my bill, so that’s not the problem this time.

I’m just hoping all will be well again by Wednesday, when the July issue is set to go online. It’s a short poems special issue, and is shaping up very nicely. Make sure you look out for it.

A Fable

In a distant country, years ago
A cruel illness made a slow
But nasty progress through the land
And threatened to get out of hand.
The king and his advisors, shaken,
Declared firm measures must be taken
To stop the plague from taking hold.
They issued diktats firm and bold.
No citizen must ever roam,
But all must always stay at home,
And must stay six long feet apart,
Even from the darlings of their heart.

But, fearing he’d be disobeyed,
The king said: ‘Make the plebs afraid.’
His men drew graphs and uttered lectures
About how wickedly infectious
The illness was, and they so hyped
It up that almost no-one griped –
No, most were most obedient, fleeing
The touch of any human being.
They washed their hands obsessively
And took delight especially
In letting the police force know
If any deviant dared to go
To visit with his family.
The plebs deplored this, virtuously.

Snorkelman

Over the long, long years of its existence, Snakeskin has inspired many of its readers to creativity. Quite frequently we hear of this directly, through feedback. Mostly, probably, we don’t.

It is pleasing to hear of an artwork created as direct response to a Snakeskin poem. Artist Shirley Blacoe read ‘Snorkelscape’ by her friend Seth Crook in the June number, and produced this rather splendid picture:

‘That Man Again’ by Shirley Blacoe

The image has now been added to the poem in June Snakeskin.