Could It Just Be - by
Dense sensations inside a farm animal
Announce themselves
At mutant scrapyards
illness
Structure - by
Brief missteps, falling out of the bath, up / the stairs at the train station as commuters / climb over…
People Made Glasgow - by
Shame in our hulls
/ why else would we drink to incoherence
/ jump on the heads of passing men
/ punch our women
/ tell our children…
Let Me Not - by
Let me not be tempted
/ to talk incessantly about my illnesses;
/ the love of rehearsing them has become too sweet.
/
/ And more…
For Willie Soutar, October 1943 - by
Twenty year beddit, and nou
/ the mort-claith.
/ This suld gar ilk ane grue,
/ …
Neurology Outpatients - by
The consultant’s room
/ a gallery
/ exhibiting the scans;
/ my head
/ an apple sliced,
/ my core on public view.
/
/ To launch the show
/ an invited few
/ stand round, comment
/ on…
GP Talk - by
Her GP told her, it’s important
/ to start looking for special accommodation
/ for when the time comes.
/
/ Parkinsons makes her slow…
When Mum Describes a Horse - by
When mum describes a horse
/ She has seen from her low bed
/ Galloping across the white wall
/ Or through it
/
/ We cough and…
Sala de Esperanza - by
The sign on the hospital wall
/ identifying the space
/ begins with a Spanish phrase—
/ sala de espera,
/ waiting room.
/
/ A more symbolic phrase
/ may have deeper…
from Lochaline Stores - by
Nothing can be hidden from Lochaline Stores,
/ Supposing the Grocer’s has eyes and ears:
/ Not an addiction to scratch cards or whisky,
/ Not…
Alzheimer’s - by
Chairs move by themselves, and books.
/ Grandchildren visit, stand
/ new and nameless, their faces’ puzzles
/ missing pieces. She’s like a fish
/
/ in deep ocean,…
X-Ray - by
Some prowl sea-beds, some hurtle to a star
/ and, mother, some obsessed turn over every stone
/ or open graves…