This first collection of poetry is full of Lumsden’s sharp observation of everyday life, enlivened by satire, humour, and a love of language. The spare and crafted poems show the skill and economy for which this poet is admired.

Julie Lumsden's poems are intelligent, concise and pungent with meaning. Her style is simple and spare. She is aware of her place within a tradition of poetry. (New Hope International Review)

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Read the extract below:

RHEINDAHLEN

Some places never leave;
you haunt them in dreams:
a child’s attic bedroom
at the top of raced up stairs

when all the books
fitted underneath
a window wide enough
to view the world.

FREE LUNCH

Someone threw a bottle into the yard
and I was plummeted into stunned wakefulness
to recall reality in the clammy dark:
Kev has cleared off somewhere. I’ve got
forty pence to last until Thursday. So here
are the hunting scene place mats
I loathed for so long. The lamb slides
pink under Dad’s carving knife. We eat in silence.
Later Mum will give me a gentle roasting:
You’re not eighteen any more Nicola.

They both look greyer, smaller: shrunken on the bone.
They remind me of John and Norma Rat
who lived in my patchwork pocket for a month
before disappearing. I am trying not to laugh.
The lamb is soft in my teeth. I remember
what Kev told me about stress hormones,
how they hit the animal’s system in a big way
in the final moments. And here I am,
eating it’s fear. As if I haven’t got enough of my own.