I work in a former abattoir
code switching
like it’s going
out of fashion
yawns
sieved through
my terrazzo mouth
sunless mornings
one bus
every hour
peopled with rage
rainwaxed floors
slippery
as heritage
once I would have
cut myself
like a service
it is right to show
buoyancy
in the workplace
targeted measures
for evisceration
no one can take
my obscure folk
records away
the slaughterhouse
is a luxury
shopping experience
naturally
I hitch night
to the last bus’s
tow bar
pressed like a flower
against carcasses
feeling caricaturish
like one of those
colossal sculptures
of a head
peopled with spleen
Tom Branfoot is a poet and writer from Bradford. He was awarded the New Poets Prize 2022. His writing has been published in Washington Square Review, The Babel Tower Notice Board, Murmur, and other publications. Tom’s debut pamphlet I’ll Splinter (2021) is published by Pariah Press. This Is Not an Epiphany will be published by the New Poets List in 2023.