The first poem (with its Gaelic original) and the exquisite tiny second one, both by Maggie Rabatski, were published in 2014 in Songs of Other Places: New Writing Scotland 32, the prominent forum for poetry and short fiction in Scotland today (Association for Scottish Literary Studies, £9.95).

             SOUP

It is October

and I am making a big soup,

the one you like –

okay, the one you really, really like.

I rose early

to cook with a slow hand,

the ham stock, the herbs, the lentils,

all the bright vegetables;

Emmylou Harris and I in the blue kitchen

singing this soup

to a crescendo.

You used to say

you could smell it

soon as you stepped off the subway from work.

Could its warm breath reach you tonight?

I’ll light a candle.

I’ll wear the sea-green dress.

THE HAY’S IN

tonight

the sun’s meadowsweet breath

nuzzles the stone walls

of the barn

while the moon stares

astonished

at a naked field