Sheena Blackhall Poems

I am old. I have lost six teeth
From my shrunkengums
My breasts are shrivelled gourds
...

1. A Walk in the Desert

I seldom speak of this
And not to strangers
...

Fatima thrust her breasts out, shoulders back
Her chin's held high, hand on her hip
She could be a Queen of the Nile
The Niger, the Zambesi
...

This is a thriller
There is a baby, a cyclist
There is jealousy in the massage parlour
...

1.Back o Bennachie

The peesie pipes her cloudy tune
Aroon the back o Bennachie
...

1.Simmer’s End: Deeside

The Dee lies smeeth’s a kelpie’s keekin-glaiss
The swallin rose-hip skirps the brae wi reid
...

Mr Bleaney's room was Spartan.
Curtains, thin;
A single, bulb-lit bed
Where he tucked in
...

A bat flew into my room... and I recoiled,
My arms shielding my head instinctively.
Blind, winged, blundering, mole,
It clung by a sliver of claw to a far corner.
...

As a child, I loved the sacks of seed
That slumbered in the barn like slack-mouthed toads.

I'd plunge small wrists for pleasure in the amber pellets,
...

On the first day she was borderline.
It was white and sunny, the Dying Room
They gave me a rich tea biscuit the colour of clay
With weak tea, served in a hospital mug.
...