Biting Dust: Scots People Poems Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Seagull an Stovies, King’s College Campus

I didna buy this maet for ye
I canna makk it clearer
The seagull cocked its heid ajee
An hodged a bitty nearer

Neist it lat oot an eildritch skreich
Near rugged ma lugs apairt
Jist like a mappy fin a tod
Sooks at its deein hairt

I crummlit oatcakes ower the girse
Tae stop its lamentation
An straichtwye I wis nearly smored
Bi hauf the seagull nation!



Spa-Watter, Pannanich

Ilkie simmer they sent ma up the knowe
Tae sup the orra tastin iron watter
Tongue-fyachie, nesty mineral medicine

It syped frae happit springs in the knowe’s breist
Jibblin doon, a fyachie roosty reid ower skelps o rock
Like a tod’s bluid, thon scunnersome elixir

Slugs oozed easy mangst the blueberries
An mochs an butteries wachtit saft as oo

Pirls o rubbit’s drappins rowed aneth the bracken
Like unstrung beads o jet skaled ower the moss

The sun full on ma chikks pit roses there
The brummils scoored ma knees wi scrats an scurls

An aa the while inbye an auncient inn
Grown ups sat suppin tay frae cheena cups
Excheengin kin-claik, swappin bits o news

While puddocks hunkerin in the sappy sheughs
Craikit an lowpt, wee green pyokes o farts



Heid o the Hoose

He trimmed his blue-blaik neb hair’s cannily
His curls had shrunken tae a baldie-pate
Thon heich, braid, fernie-tickelt Heilander
Fa wauked the warld wi a firm-stridin gait

This chiel, born in a nicht o Wintry storm
Wis kent tae cairry ither body’s waes
He raised his sister’s bairns as weel’s his ain
An vrocht tae keep them fed an happt in claes

Auld age struck late, near echty fin it cam
Like lichtnin, time’s knell felled a michty aik
TV sooked him intae its flichterin warld
He’d nod an lauch, turned tae a dweeble state

Fit gin this winter’s bairn’d bin born in June
His fowk hid bin twa spylt movie stars?
Fit if a siller speen had fed his moo?
He micht hae grown a drooth in skid-row bars

Bit like a thrissle, hardy on a brae
That raxxes up its heid abeen wi health
An care for ithers neth the warld’s blae lift.
His family, weel an thrivin, he caad wealth


The Hoosewife’s gear

Bluid-reid lipstick, Max Factor
Ile o Ulay, anti-agein
Pooder puff an peint for nails
Perm rollers for curls arreengin

Costume jewellery, like a magpie
Cultured pearls, a musquash fur
Rings for merriege an engagement
Spyles o time……teeth in a jar


Heilan Clachan

Neeps, tatties an kail in a veggie shop
Gean petals skittered snaw-like on the cassies
Rose stippled troot upon a dennerplate

Dauncers birl on the boords
A flounce o tartan, skeely, for the tourists
The inns are thrang wi Japanee an Yankees
Clouds like lovers link hauns ower the sun

Rikk frae a lum is sweet, dry aipplewid
Thunnerstorms like carousels
Furl roon the heathery crags

Sodjers frae the barracks
Stravaig the girse, checkin oot local lassies
Nae need for bombs nor rifles,
A cushie billet

On the Coyles o Muick
An aidder, fas tongue’s tint the Gaelic
Slidders throw hoch heich bracken

Burns rin forrit, niver back, for Centuries
Whiles swallt, an whiles a treetle

An we are the waves o the clachan
Jibblin up, a meenit’s stramash an daizzle
Syne ane wi the ram stam watter mirlin roon


Jeems at Echty

Jeems tuik a richt gweed willie-waucht o Time
His hauns, twa wrinkled neives, booed roon twa fauld
Fooshionless, he hytered back an fore
Wyed doon bi sairs, the skaith o turnin auld

His youth, gaed tapsalteerie aff like leaves
Doon-drappt an crined, theiur sap aa syped awa
Aroon his een, kiln-crackit wrunkles spreid
His neb, a dreepin tap, he didna blaw

A humphy-backit contermachious cyard
Grown dottlet, foonert, trauchelt ower the years
In youth, a gyangin fit, a ready lauch
Nae braeheid seems ower heich fin Life first briers