Today’s choice
Previous poems
Alex Scarborough
Hiking
I measure distance in Spotify playlists
so I can’t be trusted with maps.
How long until this becomes
exhausting?
You pace out the metres and minutes,
you take three steps ahead as I want to ask
if the ridges in your face would soften
knowing you’d get there faster
without me.
Instead I point out the waterfall
pass you an earbud.
Alex Scarborough is a poet from Hertfordshire. He studied songwriting at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance and is currently working on his first poetry pamphlet. His work is forthcoming in Cacti Fur (February 2026).
Lauren Sheerman
Offices
matins
as the sun thinks of rising i whisper good morning god into my pillow.
Curtis Brown
Property 26-2-24
After West Bank settlement marketing event… in New Jersey.
Some old masters may have operated in good faith:
unclear how they made their riches.
Vidushi Rijuta
Chances
I had nothing to lose,
so I took a chance.
Hilary Hares
The Crofton Road home team play football with the moon
They have no kit to speak of but compensate
with unshakeable belief they’ll ace the cup.
Sue Finch
The moon is a Punch in the sky.
A boy is carrying a bruise.
And nobody is talking to either of them
about ordinary things.
Heather Holcroft-Pinn
These things I know,
and in knowing, can do . . .
Ruth Higgins
You wrestle the car seat’s five-point harness,
scrabble for a foothold in the new life.
Olive M Ritch
We Need to Talk about Shoes
The right shoes
for work, party, funeral.
Kathryn Anna Marshall
Grandad keeps pigeons and canaries
in the same cage. He has never hurt me. He probably could . . .