By Finola Scott
schools out for summer
in the car-empty precinct
a can bounces across
tumbleweed tarmac
is kicked again fiercely
hands in pockets three lads watch
as it rattles in the weary wind
they make no move to catch
or return
there’ll be other cans
gies yir phone ah’ve nae credit
no choice but to be here either
his maw’s boyfriend is staying drinking
in the corner telly on loud
house full of money worries
and coughing
he doesn’t know about the lessons
piling up on his school website
hasn’t a computer or cash
to feed the leccy meter
Above boarded up shops
scrawny seagulls observe and
learn as foxes stalk plump cats
Published in International Times
Keeping distance
The sky is nonchalant unbusy
conscience clear blue
Budding trees are restless though
their branches sigh and shift
Rooted in ancient peat they tremble
and babble warning down the hypea
Breeding birds chattering
feel something relentless shift
Scraps of fog- white tangle fences
as sheep heft from field to field
Bright leaves unwrap, respect
each other’s crown space
and shiver recalling autumn.
Finola Scott’s poems can be read on posters, tapestries and postcards They are published widely in the UK & Eire including New Writing Scotland, Ink Sweat & Tears, PB, Orbis and Lighthouse. Red Squirrel Press publish her pamphlet Much left Unsaid. Currently she is Makar of the Federation of Writers. Poems and videos can be seen at Fb Finola Scott Poems. She’d love to see you there.
I am almost embarrassed at how easy the Pandemic has been for me. So many others suffering – from the actual illness, from loneliness, from financial hardship. Uncertainity hangs over many people’s lives. I am privileged having a comfortable home and garden and crucially family close to me. Formerly a teacher, I had glimpsed other’s lives and am very aware of the increaing gap between the well off & those who shockingly live in poverty. I wanted to acknowledge what life may be like for the latter in these times. Through my writing I also want to acknowledge that I found it impossible to escape the anxiety of the times.
Lovely. Really interesting how the pandemic situation is giving us new ways of working with natural metaphors, and of interweaving human and nature / other species experience.
I enjoyed the observational detail in your Schools Out for Summer poem. I particularly liked the animal/hunting references in the final stanza with the sense of foreboding although in reality a fox would rarely attack a large cat, only kittens. Sorry to be pedantic! A sense of foreboding runs through Keeping Distance too. Love the fourth stanza. Such a great description of sheep and the ending is very effective. Lovely work!
Love it! 😊