‘Poor, becoming moderate later’

If I wis waddir I’d cheenge
i da blink o a untrained ee –

I’d be warm, laek da pert breists
o wid pigeons a smidgeon ower don,
a trifle gien

I’d be weet, laek monkfish cheeks
lattin da saat wash aff afore divin
back in tae aa dey keen

I’d be dull, laek a Wednesday nicht
Faesbuik timeline, wi nae single meme
o deservin wine

I’d be mawst mesel atween plaesis,
atween ee braeth comin in
an ee braeth gjaain oot.

 

Poor, becomin moaderit laetir

If I was weather, I’d change
in the blink of an untrained eye –

I’d be warm, like the pert breasts
of wood pigeons a smidgeon over done,
a trifle gone

I’d be wet, like monkfish cheeks
letting the salt wash off before diving
back in to all they know

I’d be dull, like a Wednesday night
Facebook timeline, with no single meme
about deserving wine

I’d be most myself between places,
between one breath coming in
and one breath going out.

 

COMMENT

Christie Williamson’s poetry has been published in magazines including the New Shetlander, Lallans and Northwords Now, and commended in the William Soutar Open Writing competition and the Wigtown Poetry competition. His Shetland dialect translations of poems by Federico Garcia Lorca were published in 2010 by Hansel Cooperative Press under the title ‘Arc o Möns’, and won the Callum Macdonald Memorial Prize. Christie’s first full collection of poems,  Oo an Feddirs, was published in 2015 by Luath Press.

‘Poor, becoming moderate later’ was written in response to a prompt by Choman Hardi, one of several free writing exercises given out by The Poetry School at this year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.