3 English Poems From Pavarotti Poem by Sheena Blackhall

First Foot,2021
Ne'er Day. Dead squibs lie on the damp grass
Along the street folk nurse their throbbing heads

We have a visitor in the garden, our first foot
She has made herself at home beside the sparrows

Within the house, the cat's curled up and snoring
Our visitor a deer, opting to stay outside

It is miraculous, this timely visitation from the wild
She lies, waist-deep in grass in her russet colours

Happy Ne'er Day, deer! Lovely delicate creature
Did you step from a hunter's scene on a tapestry
Exquisitely crafted by a lady's loving fingers?



Duthie Park, Winter 2021
Young mothers clutch i-pads like precious comforters
Chatting in Polish over the Scottish airwaves
The car park's tight for space, like tinned sardines

Shrivelled bushes rattle like dried walnuts
Park benches hold a sheen of silver ice
Toddlers lurch like drunks, constrained by jackets

A little chubby child goes waddling like a duck
A father films his daughter on a slide
So should dementia strike, the memory's safe


Cut to the Chase
Anyway you slice it
She couldn't cut the mustard
Always chopping and changing with her beaux

She had the cream of the crop to choose from
She liked to cut dash
Cut some to the quick
Cut others dead
Cut suitors down to size

Till one boy clipped her wings
Cut her down in her prime
Wed her, left her,
Cut her off without a penny

And that, she said
Was the cruellest cut of all