Outside the Turf Club, Piccadilly   There’s too much moustache wax and pastel corduroy, an excess of vetivers, Trumper’s Extract of Lime, …

        In Between   A rebellious leaf tries his best to remain on the branch. He trembles from pain and air. He’s not …

Picture credit: Jurgen Brocan   Ranjit Hoskote’s The Atlas of Lost Beliefs was published by Arc in April and is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation …

        Inscape   Treading the wild moors for miles A solitary figure gathered leeches That would soak sick bodies, purge Their blood, cleanse, …

       Root   At the bottom of the garden In the heart of a blackberry bush Are limbs that do not bleed marrow. Feather …

        Passing a Lake and Noticing There Were Swimmers   The lake-swimmers push out again. Clothes wrapped in plastic on the bank. Is …

        The Birdman   He knew he wasn’t like the parakeets in the guinep tree or the egrets in the mangrove or like …

        Music of the Republic   You were with him in his final hours… Carolyn Forché, ‘Last Bridge’   Plato put a spell …

        Ablutions   I sat with her body until morning. The blueblack cold mimicked her blueblack skin. I chafed her feet with lemon-scented …