We are delighted to share with you one of the poems from the knotweed sonnets featured in Todmorden Book Festival’s opening event Pandemonium. Andrew McMillan’s latest collection pandemonium will be published by Jonathan Cape on 20 May 2021.

the year of no touch   the garden shaggy
and unkempt   autumn storms having turned leaves
to string and that night you kissed me
uncertain as drizzle   lips dewed and hungry
and each time I think we’ve reached the edge of us
together – like that time in the middle
of the Hope Valley   when I made up my mind
to leave you   when the lit windows of each house
the train passed broke my heart
it was lambing season   late but barely dark
innocent marionettes in womb blood
coming out into the night – each time like that
we feel our way back    and coming home late
you greet me as though newly arrived

Andrew McMillan