Poem of the week: A Jar of Figs

We are trying to guess its spices,

the small, hand-lettered

jar of preserves open on the counter.

We taste cinnamon and bits of apple –

Married life on the road: a tale of two vagabonds

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Good Morning, Destroyer of Men’s Souls: Humanising the story of addiction

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Following the money, mayhem and murder in Putin’s Russia

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Modern motherhood: the pressure cooker of impossible expectations

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and standing in the old kitchen

my sweet ex cooked in I can see outside

one tattered mockingbird

stabbing the seeds of a split fig.

Tamar spreads its glop

on a heel of crust – Delicious,

she says – faint clove?

And that mimic thrush

needling for something else.

• Kevin Cantwell's most recent book is One of Those Russian Novels. He was a recipient of the James Dickey Award for poetry and is associate provost and Dean of Studies in Middle Georgia State College.