Volatile: After Roddy Lumsden’s ‘Yeast’
is it okay to be in substantial love
when the earth is at the mercy of a vole tail
an oversubtle viola
sawing along to a Rakov taille
my philosophical vile tao
helps with nothing o lave til
I come home from the station at Toil Vale
a futile volta
since you warn of more civil violate
which I discern from the oval tile
you’re eating toast with a little avo
smashed being a vegetarian refusing vitello a
local delicacy I’ve been thinking in negative a toll
on the whole vital
ecology of emotional life you whistle voila
and make me jolt alive
now you’re rearranging a vase of floral violet
Robbie at Knebworth
I am the sexiest man alive
in nineteen ninety nine
for a time I believed this true
girls beautiful leaves of them
bypass security to taste
my singing lips
keep this secret
I have never loved anyone
quite like my mother
never even felt joy
up on that village stage
spinning like a kebab
sweating toxicology reports
from my tattooed skin
no one adequately prepares you
for being the most
famous person
in the world a stranded whale
barely breathing
news crews and beachcombers
scrutinising your flesh
until they cast
you back into the ocean of habit
love I will never quite die
_____________
Tom Branfoot is the writer-in-residence at Manchester Cathedral and a recipient of the New Poets Prize 2022. He organises the poetry reading series More Song in Bradford. This Is Not an Epiphany, Tom’s second pamphlet of poetry, is published by Smith|Doorstop.