Wild Court

An international poetry journal based in the English Department of King’s College London

‘In Every House Nobody Sleeps’: a poem by Tom Branfoot

Image by Pech Frantisek from Pixabay

 
 
 

    In Every House Nobody Sleeps

 

nocturnal out here     in wild escape
the gauzy texture of extreme heat
Walthamstow and Leyton
beyond     arguments sheltered
by hedgerows swallowing benches
we know it’s light pollution
smouldering the East London fresco
but think this stifling haze
an aureole draped over
commons scorched but open
it’s just a bit of debris     you say
edging closer to the breathing mass
saint to an angel     equal parts
trepidation and awe knowing
to touch a thing is to ruffle its world
stippled     as a skyline in your torch
pin-dropped in this strip
not jammed against blades
or mauled unmendably
but snuffling     still touched
by light before commuting
into the undergrowth     we whis-
per     I love you small companion
burnt     by business as usual

 


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