Sheena Blackhall Poems

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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Birch is for new beginnings.
Birch is the nursery tree
Birch celebrates sweet Beltane
Source of fertility
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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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1.Simmer’s End: Deeside

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

The peesie pipes her cloudy tune
Aroon the back o Bennachie
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Mr Bleaney's room was Spartan.
Curtains, thin;
A single, bulb-lit bed
Where he tucked in
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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.
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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,
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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.
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