Northwords Now

New writing, fresh from Scotland and the wider North
Sgrìobhadh ùr à Alba agus an Àird a Tuath

editor@northwordsnow.co.uk Twitter Facebook Search

I tell my husband I am pregnant and he sets out to make a tiny coffin (1891)

by Stephanie Green

I choose a name: Mhairi or Callum.
He searches the tide-wrack daily for driftwood.

He forbids me to make clothes
But I make sheets for the coffin-crib.

There will be clean linen until the last
while I will rock and croon to my babe

for the few blessed days of its life.
It is God’s will. I shut out imaginings:

the fourth or fifth night,
when the babe gives up sucking;

the seventh, clenched gums,
even for my finger dipped in water.

I am knitting a shawl of such intricacy,
nothing so beautiful will have been seen before.


Six Poems on the Leaving of St Kilda
Euphemia MacCrimmondPoem by Stephanie Green
I might as well be a widow (1900) Poem by Stephanie Green
I tell my husband I am pregnant and he sets out to make a tiny coffin (1891)Poem by Stephanie Green
The Boat Cold Poem by Stephanie Green
The Leaving of St Kilda (1930) Poem by Stephanie Green
Walking on Air in Gannet Slippers Poem by Stephanie Green

Northwords Now acknowledges the vital support of Creative Scotland and Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
ISSN 1750-7928 - Print Design by Gustaf Eriksson - Website by Plexus Media