Either too early or too late, Monty Reid’s The Lockdown Elegiesis a farewell to something that hasn't disappeared yet. Fragmentary, slightly aphoristic, sometimes funny and sometimes scared, the poems address the stresses, the isolation and the contradictory responses brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. They try, repeatedly, to pretend it's over. The entire collection is an elegy for friends who died during this period, including Reid’s father-in-law, who passed away during the second lockdown. The work is never bleak, and while there is a pervasive sense of loss at the heart of these poems, there is also a quiet celebration of the persistence and strength of poetry itself and of a community determined to survive with as much grace as possible.