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  • from Lochaline Stores
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from Lochaline Stores

Jackie Kay

Nothing can be hidden from Lochaline Stores,
Supposing the Grocer’s has eyes and ears:
Not an addiction to scratch cards or whisky,
Not a partiality to a bottle of Chianti.
Not a dickey heart, not an icky stomach,
Not a forty-a-day habit, not a weakness for crumpets,
Not a feverish love of the Guardian newspaper,
Not you dashing in for Alka-Seltzer.
Not the book of first class stamps for your love letters
Not you turning back from margarine to butter
Not a stain on your laundry–coffee, wine?–
Not your shaky I’m fine to the daily how are you?


Jackie Kay

from ‘Lochaline Stores’ in The Empathetic Store (Mariscat Press, 2015), by permission of the poet and publisher

Tags:

diet habits illness national poetry day 2016 news senses shopping

About this poem

This extract from a longer poem is one of the poems chosen for postcards distributed to libraries and participating schools across Scotland for National Poetry Day 2016.

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Jackie Kayb.1961

Jackie Kay was born and brought up in Scotland. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and was appointed Scotland's Makar in 2016.
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