the   knock    knock   of the rent man all the sorry excuses not to pay never enough never enough   leaving in a hurry things we left behind the baby’s blue rabbit things broken in transit glasses    plates the porcelain figurine who lost her head   not sorry to see the back …

  Bernadette Steel sent out of mental maths to see Miss Arrowsmith too dumb to do sums and me sat at the front of the class Sister Francis scratching fractions on the board the numbers jumping around like frogs in the jars from biology earlier before the chloroform cotton wool ball dropped and that girl…

The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For August, we are delighted to publish three new works by Rachel Burns. The first of these, ‘Somewhere we are fifteen, dancing at the pub disco‘, is published today with two more poems to follow throughout the month.    Somewhere…

Day One From nowhere a displaced, Cloven, braced in the shallows Marmite eyes unanswered He vaults over the ford Interrupted. Day Three A puppet under the hedge Tiny antlers once sculpted of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, vessels. Uncalled-for on grass verge of death Eye: quill in a bloodwell Back end: velour peeled already…

The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For June, we are delighted to publish three new works by Melanie Marshall. The first of these, ‘Dark bordered (Epione vespertaria)’ is published today with two more poems to follow throughout the month.  Dark bordered (Epione vespertaria)   Repelled by cedar,…

Separate episodes at the panelbeater’s left his ninety-eight Fiat Punto a particoloured motley: red body, black bonnet, right front hub blue, the other cowled under dinted dirty white. A Ferrari sticker on the boot emblem, the interior a snug perfection: flossy tassel bobbing by the mirror, seats of crimped satin. Once, red early, his iceburn…