New Mother - by
I folded the scan picture like a brewing secret
gave a copy to my mother, the gift of birth passed down
the hands of women
mothers
Mother - by
Ye were ay a rowdy laddie, Jock,
Since ever ye cam hame,
Unco ill to bed at night,
And dour to wash and kaim.
The Way My Mother Speaks - by
I say her phrases to myself
in my head
or under the shallows of my breath,
restful shapes moving.
The day and ever. The day and ever.
Whilst Leila Sleeps - by
I am moving in the dead of night, packing things, turning out lights. My fingers tie knots like fish nets. I want to be in my mother’s house but she is all the way over the other side of the world. Boxes; I can’t see out of the back window. Leila is a bundle in […]
Wild Women of a Certain Age - by
My sisters, the time has come
/ to let your hair grow long and wild and grey,
/ to cast away the heated rollers…
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…
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…
The Scotswoman who married into the Home Counties - by
Like tweed like pearls
/ like fire like wood
/ like loss like Listen with Mother with me
/
/ Like prayer like water
/ like a Scots laird’s…
I. Hall of Mirrors, 1964 - by
Quam angusta innocentia est,
/ ad legem bonum esse.
/ Seneca
/
/ It wasn’t a fairground so much;
/ just an acre of clay on old man…
Mum - by
We sat together in silence.
/ The lost look in your eyes.
/ Once they were like eternal stars.
/
/ You were full of joy and…
Sorting Through - by
the sadness of dispossessed dresses,
/ the decency of good coats roundshouldered
/ in the darkness of wardrobes,
/ the gravitas of lapels,
/ the invisible danders of…