Janet Crawford is a Falkirk based writer. Her film-poem Beacon, was included in the New York based ‘Anti Heroin Chic’. Her debut stage-play ‘A Cup ‘o Kindness’, was shown during the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2018. She is a trustee of The Federation of Writers (Scotland). Janet sings with the Freedom of Mind Community Choir and is a member of the Women with Fierce Words collective.  Locally, she has programmed for the Falkirk Storytelling Festival, bringing her love of all things writing to her home town. Her most recent publications include her first published short story in Razor Cuts IX,  and poetry in a number of anthologies including Words from Battlefield, Horsepower, To Whom It May Concern, Nutmeg 21, Razur Cuts- finest cuts and most recently Short & Sweet. She has recently added open water swimming and campervanning to her hobbies and feels these are great for encouraging her writing!

Scunnert

I ken I cannae change time
I’m stuck with days that hurtle oan
beyond a voice
I cannae help but want tae hear

whisper love

dis a lug caw canny
and mind itsel
o the lilt and lift yer voice carrit
when it lifted vowels and letters
straight fi yer heart shoutin…
‘bye darling, I love you’

as I ran awa
messages dropped in yer hall

nae tea or hugs shared, nae soap opera chatter
whilst I laughed …
mindin ye,
I dinnae watch them at aw
and then you’d say
‘well, I’m only telling ye whit I watched’…

yer een dancing wi laughter

or dae I hae tae learn tae feast on memory
and chew it doon in tiny mouthfu’s
so as no tae choke

oan grief.

Natalie Jayne Clark is a neurodivergent writer, editor, and teacher based in Perth. Their debut spoken word show 'Call Me Witch' was selected to be a part of Hidden Door's 2022 programme. They write for SNACK Magazine and edit for The Hysteria Collective. Their poetry can be found in anthologies from Flapjack Press, Speculative Books and Open Book. Though not a native Scot, they have lived here half their life and have studied the Scots language for the last few years.

sleekit selkie

sleekit selkie
scuddle apart fae yer scuffin skin
ye wear ower tha toap o yer true skin
ye ay hae tae scug fae scum that scunges aboot

they caw ye 
squeerie wee scurrievaig
yet they’re the wans whit
scutter an
scutch ower yer boady

naebody comes when ye scronach
eventually
sculted shut

efter
ye screenge awa yer scuffin skin
the wan they skiffed
mak a new wan

underneath ye arnae scrae
yer a stane glistening
a scoorie scoor

their skiffs nivir scrat the rael you
scurr awa 
scurr awa
sleekit selkie

By Natalie Jayne Clark 

English Translation:

sly/crafty/not to be trusted selkie

sly/crafty/not to be trusted selkie
naked apart from your second-best/dirty skin
you wear over the top of your true skin
you always have to take shelter from evil that prowls about

they call you
prowling/like a dog on the hunt little slut/vagabond
yet they’re the ones what
fiddle/splash about and
flick/graze/walk over your body

nobody ever comes when you cry shrilly/lament
eventually 
slapped/stricken shut

after
you energetically rub/whip/flog/wander aimlessly away your second-best/dirty skin
the one they touched

underneath you aren’t a stunted/underdeveloped human
you’re a stone glistening
a blustery with rain/disreputable rush/stroke/blow on the ear/cleanse/scold

their touches never scratch/wound the real you
slide/slither away
slide/slither away
sly/crafty/not to be trusted selkie

By Natalie Jayne Clark 

Jacqueline Jay Wilde is a trans woman and a writer, actor and sound artist. She writes and performs in English and Scots, poems and stories about loving, dying, goddesses and starlings; delicatessens, talking rabbits and a painting by Mary Cassatt.

She has appeared live at Avant Garde, Hillhead Book Club, Words and Music, Nights at the Round Table and Femmes Uncut, and online at Sapphic Writers, Coorie Insta Us and others.

Valentine Tango 

Hey auld yin,
Am an auld yin tae!
Ye wanna dance a tango?
Get doon and dirty, wi me haudin ma ain,
An you wi your rose clamped in atween yir fawse teeth,
An me wi ma gammy leg tae!

Hey auld yin,
Am an auld yin tae!
I’m drunk on thae martinis,
Just about staunin’, wi you haudin ma airm.
Up stairs that are safter than thon red satin pillaes
Ye bought me last Valentine’s. 

Mind oor wedding night?

You wi no a stitch oan ye
Me in ma ‘negligent’ oot ae ma trousseau.
Jist oot the registrars,
Me still a virgin an’
Desperate tae hae ye.
You haudin back a bit,
Then coming tae me. 

Aye, Auld yin.
Howzaboot you and me
Aince mair roon this empty flair?
Mebbie no a tango,
Mebbie a wee moon dance?
Mebbie we’ll click
Like we did afore,
A wee whiley back, eh? 

Jacqueline Jay Wilde ©2021

This contains STRANG LANGUAGE, ye've been warnt!

Scottish writer, Emma Mooney believes passionately in giving everyone a voice. She is the author of A Beautiful Game and Wings to Fly, both published by Crooked Cat Books. Her shorter works, including poems and short stories, have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines.

When not writing creatively, she works as a funeral celebrant where she has the privilege of sharing people’s life stories. Like so many of us, her work has been challenging over the past two years and she’s found wild swimming to be a fantastic escape, as well as a wonderful way to connect with people. Check out her work at www.emmamooney.co.uk

Lesley Traynor is published nationally and internationally. In 2021, her most recent chapbook of poetry, Thrawn was published by Hybriddreich, her poem, ‘Towards Stromness,’ was accepted into the George McKay Brown Fellowship Centenary archive and her poetry and poetry films representing her experience of Lockdown were accepted into the Elphinstone Institute archive.

Winner of 2019 Edinburgh International Book Festival memoir writing prize and short listed for 2019 Beyond Borders International writing prize.

She is a trustee of the Federation of Writers (Scotland), a former Director of the Scottish Writers’ Centre and has an MLitt in Creative Writing. She is currently researching a Shetland-based novel for her MRes with the University of the Highlands and Islands while transcribing seventeenth century documents for the Orkney Archives.

Passionate about supporting women’s voice, she founded the inclusive collective, Women With Fierce Words in 2016, winning the 2021 Jonni Stanton International Award for a filmed event. Her poetry films have been screened at Celtic Connections, Beyond Border Literary Festival and the Wigtown Book Festival.

Facebook @womenwithfiercewords
Twitter @latraynor

Bairn in the wee-hoose

Nairae brick waas
cauld tae the touch e’en in simmer.
Sma lungs trained tae
haud breath in paralysis, a
free
diver
afore yirdie smells dissolve infect her tongue,
morph intae the taste o lang-gane occupants.
hoys knickers unner a drindle skirt s c a r p e r s
skails grummel frae an auld wash-hoose.
mak it tae the laylock wood afore anither breith
is sooked. Appens her bouk tae the taste
o parma violets, rowen it’s sweetness
like toothpaste ower her teeth.