Life doesn’t always bloom the way you expect. Sometimes it prickles.

Thistle is a raw, searching collection that traces the arc from childhood wonder to middle-age reckoning — and everything bruising in between. These poems look back without flinching, finding beauty in imperfection and meaning in the mess.

Spanning stories and snapshots of growing up, growing wary, and growing weary, it also paints a changing country and consciousness where early wonder, and aspirations are increasingly floodlit by the glare of global decay. These poems capture the pain and beauty of holding on, preserving, or naming love. Sometimes tender and lyrical, many poems are brushed with a generous splash of scepticism and humour. Yet, beneath the cynicism, these poems still strive to believe, in the necessity of resilience.