Jackie Kay Poems

How they strut about, people in love,
How tall they grow, pleased with themselves,
Their hair, glossy, their skin shining.
They don't remember who they have been.
...

I always wanted to give birth
Do that incredible natural thing
That women do-I nearly broke down
...

I did not promise
to stay with you till death do us part, or
anything like that,
...

When I got home
I went out into the garden
Liking it when the frost bit
...

My mum is on a high bed next to sad chrysanthemums.
‘Don't bring flowers, they only wilt and die.'
I am scared my mum is going to die
on the bed next to the sad chrysanthemums.
...

Gap Year
(for Mateo)

I
I remember your Moses basket before you were born.
I'd stare at the fleecy white sheet for days, weeks,
...

I am only nineteen
My whole life is changing

Tonight I see her
Shuttered eyes in my dreams
...

The orchids my mother gave me when we first met
are still alive, twelve days later. Although

some of the buds remain closed as secrets.
...

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress.
...

If ye went tae the tapmost hill, Fiere
Whaur we used tae clamb as girls,
Ye'd see the snow the day, Fiere,
Settling on the hills.
...