Brexit Off Piste

So. How open does the EU seem
to a game of show-and-tell
in weather forecast terms?

Sitting down with a table full of
alternatives to the backstop
almost a week on from chaos,

one of the group may have
triggered the avalanche before
parliament narrowly voting in favour

-- Rupert M Loydell

Brexit: EU digs heels in over deal
Candid Kate! Duchess shares a family photo
British man among four killed during avalanche

Evolving Cultural Pull

forged cinema new wave publicist infection treatment
kitchen sink angry young man evolving screen
mixture of defiance and selfishness key extremely

secret slash taxes tariffs pull economy to tank
challenging divisive issue series flies told source
percolate through trading wearing pretty thin

many rights extending prayer division fracturing attended
love gaining women vote greatest strides
re-energise heading off a desperate cultural resistance

-- Clark Allison

Albert Finney, cinema's original 'angry young man', dies aged 82
Theresa May to hold talks as Labour issues ultimatum
Trump: One of America's greatest accomplishments is ‘abolition of civil rights’

Storm from Hell

This deepening area of pressure
Threatening, heavy, and powerful
Crashing as the last low hits

A “special place in hell”
A plan to carry it out
Sounds more like heaven to me

Social media helped kill her
Took graphic images of self-harm
And removed her from her life

-- Jennifer Grounds

Storm Erik to BATTER Britain with 70mph winds
Tusk: 'Special place in Hell' for Brexit promoters
Instagram vows to remove self-harm images from site

A Promising Leader

She set out her five demands
She held a plan to carry it out
Robust but constructive

Impasse.
A meeting for renegotiation
In a special place in hell

War.
It comes
PM warned not to end the World

-- Sam Tempest

France recalls ambassador to Italy as row deepens
Jeremy Corbyn's Brexit plan 'promising', Donald Tusk
Brexit deal may not be put to MPs until late March

Stand Amid Conviction

Most of the applause this week
Hit the headlines earlier after the crisis
Evidence perceived Roy’s death

Familiar friend wanted to kill
State of foreign threats published
Text sent throughout an interview

Two months later she was called
Rape, abortion, cuts border the rambling
Instructed only to the fault of her Independent

-- Justin C. Legions

Court upholds manslaughter conviction for Massachusetts woman
Democratic women in white stand out against Trump
Whoopi Goldberg defends Liam Neeson amid race row

The Garage Politician

A world-class mime,
even though he called it ‘desperate’
Spoke out in praise

Without speaking a word
In the ongoing battle
With rapid-fire robotic flow.

Performed in a cluttered garage
In a manner so sarcastic
Claimed he’d broken a world record.

-- Joseph Lotter

Pelosi turns clapping into a viral art form
"I'm the greatest Fortnite streamer": PewDiePie
‘I thought it was me’ – Eminem praises impression

Humans: no kindness

Student missing
Groping men
Species pushed toward extinction

Claims of toxins and sexual touching
Trapping, poaching and slaughter
Humans significant threats

Complaint: woman, men and nature threatened
Security informed, no kindness or support
Killing, loss, extinction, no decline

-- Rivie Penfold

Parents of Libby Squire ‘overwhelmed’ by support
Tory MP accused of groping men in Commons bar
Killing of large species is pushing them towards extinction

Another Woman Gone

A woman is injured again,
The death of another flame,
Broken, attacked and detained.

A desperate scream gets lost,
A story of yesterday still untold,
Attacked, alone, and gone.

A body found cold and battered,
Its miserable condition wreaked havoc,
A warning, a storm, an example.

-- Bonnie Bolt

Paris woman detained as 10 die in apartment fire
Neighbour tells of woman's ‘urgent and panicked’ scream
UK weather forecast: Heavy rain and 60mph gales

Water With Words

the flow of rivers is musical,
dancing a dramatic story of change,
singing songs with no words.

a lengthy novel written by the water.
the mind viewing the story,
even if we are expecting different.

it is a well-known landmark,
a stage for the musical.
we died for it to live.

-- Layla Cray

A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed, finds report
Differences between Les Misérables and new BBC TV series
Italy avalanche kills British and French skiers

Being Wrong Succeeded

past the jorts and the eyebrows and the extreme wonk
body clock conflicts
My mere existence seems to antagonize

universe banger: the best kind, and the rarest kind.
“morning” or “evening”
or, at least, so the received wisdom goes.

looked at 341 snippets of
a lovely unthreatening place to go
and therefore have decided not to

-- Eileen Walden

Five benefits of being an early riser
Which one of our reporters succeeded in Veganuary challenge?
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is so wrong it's right

Think of war

a man handles cold departure.
on a different morning,
war riots the underground.

a family is detained by armed suspicion.
in this crisis of unnamed war,
people think of scarring behaviour.

a person with terminal plans
issues an emergency evacuation
from the cold decade of civil existence.

-- Jess Henshall

Millennials' pay 'scarred' by the 2008 banking crisis
Heathrow: Armed police rush to reports of 'man with knife'
Queen to be evacuated if Brexit turns ugly – reports

Brexit Speaks Nuclear

Urgently trying to fight
the need to express
as options fall away.

The want to deliver
the people’s vote
violating the treaty.

Obligations, control, momentum has stalled
the doomed era of setbacks
the new Cold War.

-- Will Kevern

INF nuclear treaty: Russia follows US in suspending pact
Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks DIRECTLY to Express readers
Brexit: fight for 'people's vote' not over yet, say campaigners

Chaos of Fear

Morning of misery.
A string of issues with
a fresh amber warning

running risk of
breaking the day
with a very low tomorrow.

In abandoned conditions,
in fear of attention,
on Thursday was discovered.

-- Mae Gaynor

Snow causes chaos as temperatures hit lowest for seven years
Over 100 drivers stranded and forced to sleep in PUB
Newborn girl abandoned in east London park in freezing weather