Death And Demons, Twa Bs, The Telepathic Butcher’s Boy(15 Poems In Scots) Poem by Sheena Blackhall

1.Hame

I ken a chiel
Fa ains 3 TVs, a computor an a hi-fi.
A sci-fi tumble drier an a wife.
A librar stapt wi buiks
A car
A dug
A hunner per cent Persian rug.
A fitbaa game.
He caas this hame.

I ken a ferm,
That 5 consecutive femlies
Hae laid claim tae

It likewise belangs tae
The win, rain,
Snaa, mist
clay.
A puckle orra mowdies.
Hoolets, tods.
Layers an layers o ludgers
Hoose-martins in the eaves

The mony stratifications
0 sub-tenancy.


2.Spurgie

Teenie talons
Fit slim-fingeret birk
Twa jigsaas,
Interlockin

3.Griogoraich

Griogoraich, great tho the noise o yer fame be here
In my faither's lan, fowk spakk yer name wi a sweir.
Hollywood styles ye heroes, cattle dealers
Culblean hid anither kennin. Bluidy reivers.

Fin the hairst meen hung like a crooked dirk in the nicht
Ye cam in the derk like a wolf in the bare meenlicht
Like hoodie craws on yer garrons, cateran cyards
Tae shatter a crofter's warld an leave him shards.

The stervin bairns ye left tae greet bi the grate
Foo wad they thrive on peat rikk hunger an hate?
Oh, rodden berries glent on a fermer's broo
Fin the Griogoraich left their merk...a crimson dyew.

Curs, I hae dogged ye back tae yer peat hag lair
Tae the lang-lashed creamy kye o rich Strathyre
The salmon lowp in yer lochs. Yer braes are fair.
Wis it greed that gart ye spulzie a peer man's byre?

A deid bawd lay ootraxxed on the road yestreen
Cut doon in flicht, a denner fur wirm an craa
An I. thocht on supperless bairns wi hungert een
Wi nocht tae stap their wames bit the driflin snaa

The kye ye reived poored doon the Ben like a linn
Horn an hoof, a leevin burn o reid
The banes o yer vauntie hame lie bare in the win
The win that his blawn awa yer buzzard seed.

Griogoraich cock yer lugs in the maggot clay
Sassenachs bide here noo, yer pouer's in its kist
Yer hames are a rickle o stanes, yer lan keens was
Ye are gane frae the muckle Bens like muirlan mist.

In the starlicht nicht, an oolet fierce ye fell
Dropped like a murderin steen on the dweeble sma

Hardship an hunger were aa ye left ahin
Griogoraich, great's my joy ye hae worn awa.

Dog's will aywis sniff roon anither's hame
That winna clap at the yett or ring yer bell
Gear is a hinner..a hinneypot...a lure
The anely gem that ye truly ain's yersel.


4.WYTIN FOR THE BUS

This mornin, as I wyted fur the bus,
I watched a wyver crunchin up a flee. Nae serviette
Nae flooers on the table.
Nae saft lichts, backgrun music, Nae waiters, fuss;
Nae skinklin cutlery
A mediaeval banquet o a brakkfast it munched awa the flee's mortality.

Echt chopstick airms
Drew the morsel in
It chawed the gollach,
Left the wings ahin.
Like rinds o bacon„
Or roast chukken skin.

Syne, kyte weel stappt
Sank back, in its web-hank.
An frae its mou,
There danglit
Ae
Lane
Shank.


5. AFRICAN MERKET
(owersett in Scots o the poem 'Dead Beasts for Sale' by Paul Theroux)

Deid Breets fur sale. They maun be etten cooked.
Merkets haud flesh, like luvvers, limbs ajee.
A fremmit guff is dandy in a merket,
A puckle thoosan miles frae cauld an hame.
The happit quines, hauf herted, hide their fruit,
A scraggit tyke slinks hungeret an bare-fanged.

An awkward pause. Chiels hunker, mangst bananas,
Yer hauns are held bi cailleichs, till they scran
Yer palm, in reests o fooshty, mochie staas.
Swyte slidders aff yer jaa. On far-aff roadies
Ye mind. The sense o daith an watter's sexual.
Wi'oot a doot, as is the oot raxxed fruit

Deein fish are staikit oot on boords.
Goats, stirkies rived asunner, skint an hingin
Bleedy in stoory sheds. Bittickies o suet
Haived in pails. Skreichin cockerels
Yarked frae their weir pens

Hunkered weemin saftly mummlin prices
An meevent mangs the bodies. Blaik bairns
Raxx, as if tae affcast duds. Roch, dub-broon sarks
The wechty flesh o Hindu weemin meevin
Unner silk. Deid maet, an aaweye nyaketness


6.THE WIRM
Owersett in Scots frae 'The Earthworm, ’ by the Swedish poet, Harry Martinson,

Fa respecks the wirm?
He ploos deep unner the girse in the yird's mools.
He keeps stoor iver-cheengin.
Tcyaavin awa, stapt tae the gunnels wi dubs,
Yird steeks his moo an een. He traivels blin
He's doon ablow...the fermer in the sunks,
Far parks are quickened fur hairst.

Fa respecks the wirm?
Yon deep, quate, plooman
Unstoppable smaa gray fermer in the yird.


7.THE FORVIE BRAES
'If evyr maydenis malysone
Dyd licht upon drye land
Let nocht bee seen in Fyvie's glebye's
Bot thystl, berate and sande.'

The rigs that early fermers plooed
Is happt bi Forvie's sannie bents
Wave efter wave o gowden dunes
Like a braid sea o Arab tents
In bleedless battle, claimed the lan
Makkin the girssy glebe, a stran.
A bield fur Arctic tern an gull
Far they micht bigg their coastal hames
An raxx their wings tae flee an furl
An fish the fertile oceans teem
Far clouds like driftin sna blew ower
The cliff-tap fulmar's bonnie bouer

Wild iris scents the Ythan's bank,
The hauntin whaups cry shrill an keen,
Like full-blawn yachts wi wings sae pure
Full bellied swans sweem neth the meen.
Far waves like peacefu boaties sail
Or skelp an clash in gurly gale.

Noo nocht bit birdies makk their bield
On Forvie's shores o dunes an girse
Bit gweed may cam free wickedness
An sae it is, wi yon auld curse,
A hame's bin bigged, bi win an tide,
Far craiturs o the wild, can bide.


8.CRYPT

The mind's a derk chaumer
Lit bi twa slits o sicht.
I am the keeper o the crypt
I dinna steer up the shaddas.
The Past sleeps unquate here
In weird, aybdan nicht
.
Inbye this pit-mirk chaumer
A well draps doon,
Fell steep,
Reached bi a midnicht flicht
0 stairs o steen,
That weety,
sterky,
dreep
richt
doon
Inno a jetty puil
A puil that swallaes thochts,
Jeels prig's pretension

Its icy waves
Are cauld tae condescension

Whyles,
A winnerfu lily floats on the puil
Raxxin its creamy petals oot like stars.

Whyles
A swan
brakks
throw the inky waves
o yon subconscious airt
Snakin its neck
Like Cleopatra's asp
Its feathers, shakkin skinklin watter pearls,
Richt frae the verra hairt
0 thou black lair

Waves yonner, bob an birl
Like Pan's close croppit hair

The mind's a sanctuary, secret, snibbed, unkent,
Far thochts are coined, replacin ithers, spent


9.MILLY FRAE TILLY

Ma neebor thinks
Ma fish-pond is a slaister
She thinks my leakin cistern
Spyled her plaister

Ma neebor thinks
Ma cat pees on her flooers
A furry fiend
That skreichs aa nicht fur oors

Ma neebor thinks
Ma bidie-in is gallus
Whylst her man keeps
Their close-heid like a palace.

Ma neebor thinks
I lower the tone o Tilly
She says oor mower
Maks teirs alang her telly

I wish she'd move tae Torry, or Turlair
I winner gin she'd nag the neebors there?


10. Polis Maitter

Officer Sydney Beattie reportin tae HQ.
We've jist new
Arrived at the scene o the crash. Some smash!
Nae winner they ran oota road
The speedometer registers echty
And as ye ken,
It's nae Brands Hatch, Finechty.

Naebody's in the car
Cud hae bin waur
It's sittin teem.
The deem
Fa wis drivin it, his skedaddled
Her make up's drappt on the fleer.
It wis an accident wytin tae happen
Eneuch tae mak ye sweir, A car like yon.
A daith trap,
Roost bucket
I tell ye, it's caused some steer,
This trashed auld banger. Faiver bocht it
Fairly drappit a clanger

I wadna hae socht
the bluidy thing in a gift. Shift it?
I'd pit a spunk tae the thing fur free
The buyer'd as muckle sense
As a cross-ee'ed chimpanzee

Aa yon ice an snaa,
Nae conditions tae drive in ava.
Nae winner she rammed the waa.
As fur the hoose she hit
Na, they winna hae tae flit
Jist ae mair granite shooder
Wi a dam't great chip in it!


11.VELASQUEZ VEESITS A FERM KITCHIE IN SKENE

Her peenie lirked aroon her creashie wame,
Granmither beeried her mukle girssly neives
Deep in a boorich o lamb-fite downy feathers.
Whyles keepin tee wi kinsfowk,
An their blethers.

Her waddin ring o gowd
Tichtened aroon a clutch o sherp pronged quills
Syne free the deid bird's back,
Her forcey fingers
Rugged its cosy claddin.
Its coat that kept it happt free winter chills.
Delicate as auld lace,
Slicht's a communion wafer,
The blae skin lookit
Plooky, unca, bare,
Fite as wax, an pale as frozen lard
As motionless and still's
A frichtit hare.

She held the hauf skinnt chucken on her lap.
The antrin feather catched in a doon-drap
Furled like thin fag rikk, slawly ben the air.
Syne lichtit on the kitchie lino fleer

The thrawed hen's thrapple, yella beak ajee
The jeely preen o bird's pathetic ee
Walloped ootower her muckle sonsie knee

A diamond o begeck
Hung silent...squawk new-brukkeri in its neck.
Its clooks trailed scaley,
Bricht's the cracked egg yolk ryped free the bird
Its nails war stapped wi stoor free dirt-packed yird

She yarked the bricht intimmers frae its wame.
Broth needs chucken, tae be wirth the name.
Snorrel o crookit, wummlin, stammach cable
Reamed reid alang the scrubbit kitchie table.

An syne, she cracked a spunk, she singed its dowp
Intae the buttered pan I heard it cowp.
The hinmaist hen tae roast, afore the rowp.
Twa things war endit in yon day. A hen, its fowk.


12.ROSE

I bide in a bonnie scentit rose
Its petals glimmer like the dawn,
Its stalk is slender's a lassie's waist
that nae a man's laid haun upon.

The air I breath's a rare perfume,
As fine as is the lily pure
The wins blaw saftsome roon my rose
Sae's nae tae tash her bonnie booer.

And mony's the vauntie lady comes
Tae sneck my dentie rose's heid
As ruby blushes crammosie
Yon blossoms chikks are derk's hairt bluid.

I am the keeper o the rose
As ye boo doon tae brakk her neck
I creep free oot my flooer's faulds
A fyauchsome fleg. A sair begeck,

I am a gollach, hard and fierce
My tail's a deevilock's forked in twa.
Like a black tear, I treetle doon
Takk tent, proud hizzie, side awa.


13. THE GREEN BOOER

The watter treetlit ower the moss
It slipped ower slopin slabs o rock
Green sliddery, slivery, slokin slide
It teemed intil a gowden crock
0 dimplin waves an sanny foon
A peel baith winnerfu an broon
Far trooties louped... a puddock's soon
Reeds, like cailleach's hair flowed doon

Abeen the peel on ilkie side
Willows an birks raxxed leafy airms
A wuvven reef o branch an bouer
A taiglit canopy. A bairn,
I dookit in yon hidden booer
Ringed roon bi secret widlan flooer
Ae musky, dusky, simmer's oor

The scentit violet, feathery fen
Bloomed in yon green forgotten glen
Enchanted airt, unkent bi men,
Skiffens o sun cam skirpin throw
The threided weave o leaf an bough
Saft, crooed the cooshie frae the knowe

Canyons of concrete cut the skies
Cameras record with spying eyes
The city's treadmill clockwork pace
It's stoney heart. It's glittering face
Is diamond rich, in beauty, poor.

Timeless wis yon enchanted booer


14.SOOKERS

Caramels are chawy,
Caramels are rare,
Makk yer slivvers sugary,
Makk yer fillins sair.

Pandraps are fur Sabbaths,
Dinna crunch—list sook.
Then, ye'll thole the sermon,
Frae the Haly Book.

Chocolates are fur lovers
Meltin, sweet an braw,
(Bylins, sherp an nippy
Widna dee ava)

Sweeties are the short cut
The gift withoot a fyke
Fin ye hinna got an inklin,
0 fit the deil fowk like!


15.THE WEATHER FORECAST

A hurricane's blootered Dunoon!
Ilkie reeftap blew aff o the toon!
They flew past Big Ben at a quarter tae ten,
Wi a wife in an auld flannel goon!

A blizzard as coorse as a vice,
His turned hauf o Lumphanan tae ice.
Ye can skyte throw the shire, like a penguin on fire,
An reach Russia, withoot blinkin twice.

A moonsoon's brocht chaos tae Ayr.
A doonpish at a fitbaa match there,
Washed the goalie, the baa, and the players anna
Like wee boaties, awa tae Turlair.

An earthquake his shook Aiberdeen.
Marischal College is noo in the Green.
Three quarters o Torry fell doon Rubislaw Quarry,
And Northfield his flitted tae Skene.

A heatwave his frizzled Braemar.
Aa the towrists hae meltit like tar.
The troot in the burn, hae bin fried tae a turn,
There's fish suppers frae Dess tae Cromar.

The weather cock jetted tae Spain.
Says he'll nae be returnin again.
This terrible weather has broken each feather
And frozen the frills o his caimb.

Snaa, smirr, on-dings mochy an oorie
We thole, forbyes drucht hett an stoorie
Sae, gin ye ging oot, takk yer waukin buits stoot
Yer wellies, bikini, an toorie.