Kingdom: Lulls of wind when dusk
quenches west, the ciphers left in dust.
Phylum: The unmapped complications in the sand
that underwrite a tidal isle.
Class: The moment in a bird’s parabola
between launch and mastered fall.
Order: Any workplace after hours of business
when a cry outdoors gives silence shape.
Family: How dreams leave spindle armatures
behind, collapsing into gesture.
Genus: What will quietly still happen
beneath your nose, even after this description.
Species: The thing that hurried past your notice
between this line and the previous.
Chris Kitson is from County Down and based in Scotland. His work has appeared in The Stinging Fly and Poetry Ireland Review among other places, and was shortlisted for the 2024 Magma Pamphlet Competition. He also has a book of criticism, Legacies of the Sublime, out with SUNY Press.
More work by Chris Kitson
Tel: 028 7126 6946
Email: hueditor@theverbal.co
Verbal, Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street Within, Derry/Londonderry, BT48 6PU
companyCopyright © 2026 Honest Ulsterman