Sheena Blackhall Poems

After the marquee dance I crossed a field of frosty turnips
My stilettos cobbling on the rutted furrows

The taste of a farm boy's kiss
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At the peak of their powers, from London to Leith
They died in their dozens, brave, coward and thief
But to sufferers with toothache each man did bequeath
A prize beyond measure, his Waterloo teeth
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No-one, once, could tell the age of lobsters
Canadian scientists learned to count the rings
In their eye-stalks. Eureka, it was done!
Everyone thought the world possessed two moons
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Every funeral's different. Angus Calder
Poet and historian's was eco-green
With woodland pipe, songs, poems to mark his passing
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Nostradamus (1503-66)is famous for his cryptic prophesies that have supposedly forecast major world events. He also had expertise as a pharmacist and a jam-maker. His most notorious formulation is a "love jam" that was based on mandrake fruits and other reputed aphrodisiacs. The recipe can be found in his 1555 ‘Treatise on cosmetics and jams'.

Here is a magic potion of great power
Go dawn-pick mandrake apples if you will
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Birch is for new beginnings.
Birch is the nursery tree
Birch celebrates sweet Beltane
Source of fertility
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Brown madder, burnt umber, bronze, sienna
Flake white hue, flesh tint, French ultramarine
Manganese blue, cobalt violet, magenta
Davy's grey, lamp black and rich olive green
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When I'd a cold, my granny said
Soak your feet in a mustard bath.
With a spoon of mustard powder stirred
In warm water to ease your cough
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A Very Expensive Lamb
(£367,000 sheep is world's most expensive)

A Pedigree Texel wee lamb
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I am old. I have lost six teeth
From my shrunkengums
My breasts are shrivelled gourds
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