Tam O’ Shanter
by and published in Edition Ten of Pomegranate
Too numb to feel the crunch
of broken china underfoot
Tam quivered by the door, dodging
chunks of plate, wedding gifts
that dared catch her eye;
she reeled from fire to sink,
she was ashamed – this gibberer,
pissed, conjurer of tales
that took the biscuit –
she’d knock him into fractions,
fling the remnants round the Kirk
for Nick himself to dance on –
flog this Nannie out of Ayrshire;
take poor Maggie’s stump and –
unchristened bairns? –
likely this jade’s bastards,
coaxing leatherheads like him
beyond their wits with fancy peep shows;
he could fiddle on the key stane
with his beldams, sit in coffins twirling candles
with those other bonie burdies:
she was leaving.
Mark Burns Cassell
Mark Burns Cassell recently graduated from the University of Leeds with first class honours. He is now taking at least a year out from thinking about careers and further education; he is moving to Cumbria for the summer, then to Brighton, whilst making writing his main focus. Mark is currently developing his skills of writing poetry using more basic, formal conventions – sonnets, quatrains – Making Cider with Joan of Arc reflects this.