Category: contributors

Canny

A SCOT, wha hae with Wallace bled, did
FEIGN that he himself were dead; used
CHALK to mark his face as pale, and
EAGER, lived to tell the tale.

[With apologies to Robbie Burns and nothing to do with this DQP]

Separated by a Common Tongue

A SCOT from the lowlands, hired in no-show’s stead,
FEIGNs calm, opens the one door of little highlands school,
CHALK and other supplies–he’s walked it all from the station four miles back.
EAGER kids greet him: each other’s accents barely decipherable.

Fixed

THETA, in uppercase symbol, is shorthand for all manner of
RAJAH-important science and maths statements. My favourite, the to-the-
MANOR-born Pentaquark: four quarks and a antiquark fixed together, like a
LOUSE fixed between two fingers on the day you finally catch one.

Rajah has an itch

LOUSE thinks it’s wood thrush, to the bird
MANOR born, practicing micro song all day long,
RAJAH hears nothing, busy inventing spherical coordinates, about to add
THETA to the definition-but first, there’s an itch to scratch.

Alone

SPINY spine shivers – the
WALTZ tune is serpentine, the tune slithers amongst the
ORGAN reeds, equally creeping, sneaking, snaking through my bones,
ALONE, chilled, in this densely crammed dance hall.

Eating peaches

‘SEIZE the day’ they say and the
ANGST
BEGAN: ‘Was I seizing the day in the way I would seize a
PEACH, ripe, ready to slurp – once I’d got over the furry skin texture again which always makes me feel as though I’m wondering what it is I’m really eating.

Yin Yong Chun: Apples and peaches in bowls with polo tapestry
[my title, not the artist’s]