Homecoming

Winter dusk soughs in, dark
clouds threaten, tangle her wool.
She sets down his heavy gansy,
the jumper finished at last.
A memory, that memory, sharp
as now, catches her. Him so
handsome on the shore that night,
her so forgetful – that starred night.

But the storm has weakened,
the sea is back where it belongs.
She checks on the stew bubbling
golden in the range. It will sweeten
his high tide return, soften the shock.
Time for her to walk, to shake off
cruel loam and shut-in. Time to breathe
the iodine of sea spray, tang of kelp.

Slipping her silky pelt out, dusty
from where he’s hidden it,
singing, she unbraids her hair,
heads at last to the shore, to home.

Finola Scott‘s work is widely published including in The Lighthouse, Ofi Press, the High Window and I,S&T. As well as enjoying performing her poetry, when not gorging on workshops she dances in her kitchen. Dreich publish her new pamphlet Count the ways.  More here: scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk