Visiting Winter: a Johannesburg Quintet - by
1. Visiting Winter
/
/ a wee bit frosting
/ by night
/ buys a wheen o
/ sun block
/ Naw, ye’ll no see me
/ back north
/ he hoasts
/ cauld n beery
/
/ 2. Scrap
/
/ Metal,…
Best Scottish Poems 2012
The Eye - by
Across the bay, they’re building a house
/ with a glass wall, panes all the way up
/
/ into the gable, windows that wrap
/ around…
Wit is it - by
The stonemason sade it’s aw in yur heed
/ Yur eyes ur like windeez an yur brain’s gon naywhere
/ Build yurself a palace
/
/ The…
The Witches - by
The witches knew the truth – / smelling my wickedness / with huge hooked noses.
The Haunt - by
Betwixt of January,
/ the year’s scantest trawl. The sharking ghost of Anne Boleyn
/
/ would raise a shrug. But my ghost would void…
Dionysus and the Maiden - by
after Nonnus
/
/ I
/
/ Her only home was here in this forest, among the high rocks,
/ sending her long arrows in flight through…
Spinning plates - by
My mother was mad as mercury,
/ mad as a silken Disraeli stovepipe hat
/ hiding a gypsum-white rabbit.
/
/ She once told me – the…
Cocktail hour - by
Measure out, administer.
/
/ Katie’s half dribbling, half tiny-bubbling.
/ She’s laughing (gentle). She’s not swallowing this, tells it
/ in a viscous mumble, bright red…
This Was the Year - by
This was the year before the year
/ that collapsed on us, a roof brought down by snow.
/ The year of riding through…
Sacrifice/Ìobairt - by
And this was known as the milk room,
/ the coldest room in the cool house.
/ There, on a paint-stained table,
/ Jugs and bowls…
Pigeon with Warburtons - by
dead still
/
/ no nervous skull-shakes
/ or scuttle-pecks
/
/ still
/
/ hiding in doorway shadows
/ as sun slides
/ like a drunkard
/ down dull bricks
/
/ head still
/
/ a single slice of bread
/ hollowed out…
Favourite Place - by
We would be snaking up Loch Lomond, the
/ road narrow and winding after the turn at Tarbert,
/ and we’d be bending branches…