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  • markets
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markets

Street Market - by Jean Guthrie-Smith

{ Poem }

Here, under the awning of cotton,
/ Tomatoes are heaped in a flare
/ Of glossy red beauty, and rotten
/ Sick-sweet smells of fruit fill…

The Bargain - by Liz Lochhead

{ Poem }

The river in January is fast and high.
/ You and I
/ are off to the Barrows.
/ Gathering police-horses twitch and fret
/ at the Tron…

My First Bawbee - by Archibald McKay

{ Poem }

O! nane, I trew, on a’ the yirth
/ Was happier than me,
/ When in my wee…

Flute Player - by Farzaneh Khojandi

{ Poem }

Where is the real bazaar?
/ I want to buy an eyeful of kindness.
/ I want to dress my soul in hyperbole.
/ There’s a…

In Macedonian Markets - by Ante Popovski

{ Poem }

After Pradech
/
/ The market had everything:
/ that Macedonian autumn
/ earth talked through mothers
/ standing over fruit
/
/ cooling it with water
/ for the eyes of the customers,
/ caressing…

Socks - by Fatima Naoot

{ Poem }

The seller of socks
/ on Sulaiman Basha Street pavement
/ takes such care of that black one
/ she puts it in the shade
/ away from…

Woman Selling Fruit - by Gabrielle DiLorenzo

{ Poem }

Her wares
/ adorn the front
/ of a mustard-yellow building
/ She scolds her grandson
/ and arranges mangos, bananas, ginger root
/ and grapes
/ in glorious disorder
/ She is tiny,
/ well-shaped,
/ piquant
/ as…

Selling Watermelons - by Andrei Voznesensky

{ Poem }

Moscow is milling with watermelons.
/ Everything breathes a boundless freedom.
/ And it blows with unbridled fierceness
/ from the breathless melonvendors.
/
/ Stalls. Din. Girls’ headscarves.
/ They…

Aw Jock Tamson’s - by Janet Paisley

{ Poem }

Moonrise, an maudlin in the mirk,
/ we coorie in, hoose selt, hame hawked,
/ oor labour thirled tae yesterday,
/ the morra pawned fur brick-a-brack.
/
/ Thieves…

Hamnavoe Market - by George Mackay Brown

{ Poem }

They drove to the Market with ringing pockets.
/
/ Folster found a girl
/ Who put wounds on his face and throat,
/ Small and…

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Scottish Poetry Library
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Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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