Refugee
Leave roof and rosebush,
rafters hung with herbs
leave wedding chest,
and children’s toys,
the beds where they were born.
Leave folded linen,
quilt and woven rug
cups and kettle and coffee pot
and grandma’s favourite chair.
Leave books and breadboard,
polished pans and painted plate,
window lace and ticking clock
and warm bricks round the hearth.
The stair that creaked,
the door that jammed
– they’ll not trouble you again.
Chase the cat into the woods
open the birdcage,
let the linnet fly.
Lock the door
and throw away the key.
Pick up your bundle.
Go.
About this poem
This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2023. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editor for 2023 was Aoife Lyall.
Editor’s notes:
Adjectives here deliberate and important – the “wedding chest”, the “children’s toys”, grandma’s favourite chair” – establishing as they do a humanity that is so often eviscerated with the word ‘refugee’, one so often made synonymous with people wanting something for nothing, rather than those who have lost everything but their lives. Nobody just leaves a country, Scott reminds us, they leave the big things and the little things behind: objects and memories, routines and rituals; things loved, unloved, and familiar. The fourth stanza is particularly devastating in its simplicity: “The stair that creaked / the door that jammed / – they’ll not trouble you again”.
Publisher’s notes:
