The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For October, we are delighted to publish three new works by Tina Sederholm. The first of these, ‘Kill Your Speed: Working Farm‘, is published today with two more poems to follow throughout the month.

Kill Your Speed: Working Farm
(Notice at a campsite entrance)

Dusk approaches, a dark ghost swallowing
the firm outline of rusted tractor, oil drums,
feedbags that line the chicken coop.

Two fridges in mildew coats, sag
against each other, umbilical cords
trailing in the soil-scarred yard.

The soaked slicked corpse of a rat
lies beside the front door,
paws curled up, ready to box

the opponent who snapped its neck
with a single bite. Entrails
seep out, surprisingly newborn.

On the window ledge, a cracked egg
extrudes a jelly mass, awaits the slow
itch of bacteria, jaws of air and rain.

Sat in darkness at the kitchen table,
he strokes the barrel of a shotgun,
contemplates the taste of its saliva.

Moonlight pools on a mirror
his own reflection avoids, crucifix
slipped since the wife petered out.

On the veg patch, fluorescent eyes blink.
Pointed teeth puncture cabbages.
Cold metal aches against his cheek.

His finger kicks the trigger.

Tina Sederholm is an Oxfordshire-based poet, performer and editor. Her two collections, Everything Wrong With You Is Beautiful, and This is Not Therapy, are published by Burning Eye. Creator of five solo spoken word shows, she has performed everywhere from The Royal Albert Hall and Edinburgh Fringe to her local aquarium. When she is not writing, she can be found riding racehorses or walking her Boxer dogs across the Cotswold hills.