With its intriguing title, ‘She Said He Said I Said,’ the latest issue of New Writing Scotland (edited by Diana Hendry and Susie Maguire and published by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies at £9.95) offers its usual lively mixture of poetry and prose, from no fewer than 48 writers. Here is Graham Fulton’s contribution - about the horrors of the photo booth!

WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T SMILE

looking subnormal in a photo booth

only takes a neutron of the consciousness

it took

in the old days

when you had to wait a week

for 4 sloppy photos

to slide out of the slot

in a strangely sexual way

on the side of a weird machine

with a wee overworked man inside

frantically developing at the speed of light,

while now

you twirl the chair to the demanded height

and listen to the female robot instructions

and place your digital head

precisely

within the red oval

and whatever you do don’t smile

whatever you do don’t smile,

util it’s all done

and you get your pictures 51 seconds later

and stare at them in disbelief

and do it all again

in the hope that this time

Brad Pitt’s or The Elephant Man’s

or anyone else’s face will be there

instead of your own